Trauma Trio
by TraumaticVampiress
Summary: Hera Preston, Amanda Cherrystone, and Lilac Fyals are Candy Stripers from Caduceus USA. Although one is blessed with the Healing Touch, the three of them are determined to save patients like their adult family and friends in various disasters and arcs. Follow not only them, but their youthful companions with similar motives.
1. UNDYING PROBLEM: Intro

_**I know the characters spaces say Leslie and Victor, and the genres romance, but this is not a VictorxLeslie fic. Thanks for understanding~**_

My name is Hera Preston. I am a fourteen-year-old girl with blue hair and hot pink highlights. My hair is usally kept in two braids in the front. I wear yellow contact lenses...

This is my seventh month volunteering at Caduceus USA as a Candy Striper along with my two best friends: Lilac Fyals and Amanda Cherrystone.

Since I was twelve, I've wanted to be a general surgeon. SO BADLY. It all started with a love of video games, and a source that provided them... With medical themes.

Originally, just hearing the word "hemorrhaging" would makes some of my limbs and muscles tense and a bit "twitchy". I've _mostly_ overcome that now and I hope not to run into it again any time soon!

I quickly changed into my usual striped uniform. A stereotypical Candy Striper's uniform. I slipped one of my clean pairs of white spandex on underneath it. No one needed to see anything, right? Right. I grabbed my white apron off of the big-ass toilet dispenser of the public restroom stall.

Yes, I'm in the building now. I can't wear my uniform on the city bus for reasons...

I pulled my red ballerina flats out of a small, pre-school sized polka-dot backpack and slipped them on. I crammed my casual clothes into it and unlocked the stall and walked out with my pack and the little nurse's hat (Didn't always wear it) that went with my outfit.

I dropped my back onto the sink counter. I was the only one in here. I poofed my braids and fixed my hair as I put the hat on until it looked good enough. I twirled around to see that nothing on my skirt was crammed down my spandex. Because that would just look ridiculous.

I grabbed my bag and walked out of the bathroom. I waved to some of the nurses and patients that greeted me as I walked by them to Nurse Angie Thompson's locker. She allows me to keep my backpack in her unit because the girls and I still haven't been assigned our own.

I looked around until I saw Lilac and Amanda chatting. I strode up to them. "Hello, fellow Candy Strippers- Oops, Candy _Stripers_." I loved messing with these guys.

"Hey, Hera. How's Yvonne been treating you?" Lilac asked.

I stiffened up. Yvonne Zane was my 19-year-old step-sister. She was also my legal guardian. My parents are not with us. My mother died a few years ago and I was left in my step-father's and Yvonne's care. He loved me. He was with the military and was drafted a year ago.

But what makes this entire thing uncomfortable for me is that Yvonne isn't quite right in the head. She's beautiful and all, but she isn't quite fond of me.

..She also insisted that she Candy Strip- Stripe with us because she wanted to meet some hot doctors.

Would you believe our luck when this happens next?

"GET OUT OF MY LABORATORY!" Dr. Victor Niguel roared from not far away. Me and the ladies exchanged a glance and giggled as we crept to see what was going on.

Yvonne slipped out, apparently looking defended. Her Candy skirt was cut short and she was obviously wearing a garter belt-you could see the straps going up from her stocking, and she had altered her top in a v that goes... Down-to-there.

"What's going on?" Dr. Tyler Chase burst out laughing from down the hall. "Victor! I didn't know that you-"

"I DON'T!" Victor defended.

Of course, Sidney Kasal just so happened to be walking along when this all happened.

"Do we have a problem?" He asked as he strolled up.

"This woman came onto me while I was trying to observe dangerous organisms under the microscope!" Victor pointed to Yvonne.

Without hesitation... "Yvonne, your now relieved from your volunteering duties." Mr. Kasal quickly walked away. In other words: Yvonne, you're fired.

Yvonne stood there in shock while Lilac, Amanda and I burst out laughing. Tyler did, too, from where he was. Victor facepalmed and closed the door to his lab, locking himself away once more.

After the scene, the girls and I proceeded with our duties. I read _The Red Kite_ and _Kitties and Puppies, What's the Difference?_ so many times that I'm actually exhausted.

It was about my lunchbreak by now..

I walked back to Angie's locker, turns out she was there, too.

"Thanks for letting me use your locker, Angie. It's really nice of you!" I thanked her.

She smiled. "Oh, you're welcome! Do you need something?" She asked as she took a tub of Greek Salad out of her locker. I guess she was on lunchbreak, too.

"Just a little brown paper bag with my lunch in it." I tried to say casually.

She nodded, and unzipped something inside the locker (most likely my pack) and handed the small bag to me. "Anything else?"

I shook my head no and she closed the locker. I walked with her until she saw Dr. Derek Stiles and began to make her way towards him. "See ya, Nurse Thompson!" I called, waving. She turned around and waved to me. Derek did, too. Then I went to go find Lilac and Amanda.

I found them sitting on a couch in the Staff Room with their lunches. Lilac had sugarcookies and Amanda had a salad. She was a vegetarian. I sat down inbetween them both and opened up my brown paper bag. I gasped loudly.

"What is it?" Amanda asked worriedly.

"Yvonne _promised_ she'd make lunch for me today!"

"She didn't give you anything?" Lilac asked.

"Oh no, she did. She gave me a nasty nectarine!" I stretched the bag wide open for the girls to see. "I hope it didn't stink up Angie's locker..." The horrible aroma of Yvonne's nasty carpet-scented perfume and rotting fruit drifted through the room.

Amanda peered in. "Eww! I don't think I can ever eat another nectarine again!"

"There's a dead fly stuck to it." Lilac said dryly. She tucked one of her blonde locks behind her ear. "Well, I have cookies and would be willing to share." She glanced at Amanda, who continued eating her salad. After a few seconds she stopped to see us staring at her.

"..."

"Aren't you gonna share?" Lilac made a fist and put it on her hip.

Amanda's brownish skin blushed and she put a hand to her face. "Um, yes of course. Sorry.."

Amanda looked so much cuter than Lilac or I when she blushed because of her dark skin, and ours is just so pale and fair... It looks a little too red.

Amanda split her salad with me and Lilac gave me three cookies. ..After I threw out the nasty nectarine. When we finished lunch we threw away our scraps and washed our hands before we went to go find Nurse Leslie Sears for further instructions. She and Angie were the ones that usually supplied us with our tasks.

..We couldn't find her.

I walked up to the woman at the front desk. "Where's Nurse Sears?" I asked her politely.

"Um..." She shuffled some papers around on her desk. "I believe she is in the Staff Room."

"Okay, thanks!"

"We were just there.." Amanda commented as we walked away.

We walked in there and found Leslie with a cup of coffee in a red solo cup.

"Hello, girls!" She greeted us.

"Hello, Nurse Sears." We said in unison.

"We were wondering if there were any more instructions you had for us today."

"Oh!" She thought for a moment. "I haven't quite thought that out yet. But rememebr! Keep the good work up and you'll be able to go on the trip to the bay with us in three days."

New doctors were coming in so on Saturday of this week we'll be given a break. The doctors who were going chose to go to the ay.

"I completely forgot about that.." I admitted outloud. "Nurse Sears, you don't think-"

"No I don't, Hera. You have nothing to worry about! The lifeguards will be on duty.."

When I was seven years old I was caught in a whirlpool. I already had this fear of large bodies of water, and how they drain... I couldn't stand to be in a draining pool... Does anyone remember the incident at Lake Peigneur in Louisiana all those years ago? Would you believe that such a thing could happen again- In the state of Washington?

I've tried forgetting this memory- But to no avail. The only thing I've forgotten is the name of the lake. It was summer and mom was still alive. I had swam away and all of a sudden it felt like something had hold of my foot. I was trapped in what was becoming a giant whirlpool, it was like being in a rip current but much, much worse.

Mom was running along the road, looking for me. My father wasn't with us. We didn't know who he was. Mom saw me in the giant funnel-shaped disaster and called out to me. "Hera, Hera!" She would cry.

She finally jumped in to save me. The lake was draining fast. She grabbed onto my hands as she sunk below me. It was pulling her in! By the time I could only see her arms, she was pulled out of my grip and was gone. My toes brushed the sand as the whirlpool came to a sickening hault.

My mother was dead.

"Hera, Hera!" Leslie shook me.

"Thank you for reminding me, Nurse Sears. If you don't mind, I must be catching the bus.." I walked away from them and swung my pack over my shoulder.

I briskly walked through the trauma center and pushed outside the door, walking to the city bus stop. Withen five minutes, in pulled up. I drew my bus pass from my backpack and boarded the bus, swiping it, and sat down in the back of the bus all by myself for the entire ride.

As the bus approached my stop, I got up on my knees and pulled the yellow wire. It stopped almost immediately and I tumbled over onto the floor. I stood up and brushed off my uniform, walking off the bus as people stared at me. The ones that have been riding the bus as long as me shouldn't be staring, they know I'm a bit of a klutz sometimes and that I wear a candy uniform.

The bus stop was unusally close to my California house, on the same block. I walked down with my backpack still slumped over my shoulder. I walked up to the house and rang the doorbell. Twice, three times..

Yvonne, finally, opened the door. "Oh, it's you." She scowled.

_"Who else would it be?"_

"Hello, Yvonne. Please let me in."

She stepped out of the way and I hung my backpack on a hook in the hallway.

"You know, no one at that hospital really cares about you." I ignored her as a took my flats off.

"You're just a waste of space that steps under the doctors' feet."

"..."

"Your hair blinds people."

I began walking away.

"I was talking to you!" She spun me around and punched me in the face. As soon as she did, I fell to the ground.

"Yvonne.." I whispered.

She growled and ran off. When I was sure she had gone, I slowly rose and looked into the hall mirror. Blood trickled down my right cheek. I walked into the kitchen and picked up the phone, dialing.

"Hello, Social Services? I'd like to report a Yvonne Zane for child abuse. Yes, it's been going on for awhile now.."


	2. Death

After school, I sadly trudged off to Caduceus USA, already in uniform from yesterday. I didn't take it off... Nasty, I know.

"Hera." Amanda walked over to me sternly, and put her hands on her hips when she was close enough. "You didn't look good at school today, and you don't look good now. You need to- blah blah, blah blah blah, blah."

Yeah, I wasn't listening. I was too busy staring at her hair- It was raven black, looked like a sheep, and she always kept it in two, high buns.

"Did you hear me, Hera?"

"Your hair looks nice today..." I commented.

Leslie walked up behind Amanda with Lilac. "Hera, you don't look so good.. In a sad way, I mean."

"I can't stay here much longer. I'm going to be put in the Foster Care System starting tomorrow."

My friends and Leslie gasped.

"I'm... I'm sorry to hear that.."

"Yeah. I've already heard that the place I'm going doesn't even have any volunteer programs." I picked up my pack and went around them, walking away.

"Wait!" Leslie called.

I stopped and spun around.

"...I'll be your guardian, Hera."

I blinked, in some sort of awe. "..W-What? What did you say Nurse Leslie- ..I mean Nurse Sears?"

She smiled and walked over to me. "You can come live with me at my apartment. It will be fun! Would you like that?"

I nodded. "I would like that very much.." I told her, tears forming in my eyes. I think a few tears were in her eyes, too. We hugged, and Amanda and Lilac just looked at us in awe.

"I wonder if I can get Nurse Thompson to adopt me.." Lilac whispered to Amanda.

"Let's get to work, ladies!" Leslie said as soon as we finished hugging. "Dr. Chase has some dirty needles he needs disposed of, can you go get them and bring them to me, please?"

We nodded. "Yes, ma'am!" We said in unison, and ran off to go find which ER Dr. Chase was in. We found him disposing of his gloves in a trash can.

"Dr. Chase?" I asked from the doorway.

He looked up. "Oh! Hey, Candy Stripers! Wasn't that hilarious yesterday?" He broke into a laugh.

Lilac giggled. "It was!"

"We were wondering where your nasty syringes were." I tried to say casually.

He paused for a moment.

"The dirty ones." Amanda corrected me.

"Oh! Yes, they're in the red box over there."

"Thanks." Lilac smiled.

I walked over with my girls in tow. I reached up and tried prying the box off of the wall. "Urrgh.. Oof!" I fell backwards as I got the box off of the floor.

"You okay over there?" Dr. Chase asked as he organized some bottles of stabilizer and serums.

"Yes." I answered as Lilac and Amanda sat me up.

I felt a sharp pain in my back.

_Urg..._

Trembling, I reached behind me and pulled something out of me: One of the dirty syringes. I swore to god I nearly fainted right there I was so scared.

"H-Hera?" Lilac whispered.

"I-I'm sure its fine... It didn't peirce my skin directly... My clothes-"

"You girls still here?" Dr. Chase asked.

"Sorry, Doctor. We were just going." Lilac hauled me up with her super-beast strength and took the box from me while Amanda dropped the syringe in.

We walked back to Leslie, but it seemed like an hour went by. "Here, Nurse." Lilac handed it to her.

"Good work, ladies! Say, while I work on your paperwork so you can move in with me, Hera, I need you three to do some tasks for me."

"Yes, Nurse Sears?" We asked in unison.

"Lilac, I need you to go find Dr. Chase and make sure he hasn't gotten his foot stuck in the waste basket again, I haven't seen him in awhile!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" She ran off.

"Amanda, I need you to go pick up the trash in the childrens' wing!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" She ran off in a different direction.

"Hera, I need you to go check up on the patient in room 403." She smiled at me sweetly.

"Oh, really? Thank you, Nurse Sears!"

"I figured you'd need something to cheer you up while I work on your paperwork. Go have fun!"

"I will, Ma'am!" I skipped off to go find the room. The patient in there was Eric Sullans, my boyfriend. He was my age, went to my school, everything. He'd been hospitalized six months ago because of troubles with his Pancreas, and that was how we got to know each other better.

I pushed open to the door in his room. "Eric!" I smiled.

"Hera!" He brightened up. "Oh, you beautiful girl! Come over here!"

I did so and he leaned over to hug me.

"Do you need anything? Drink? Fluff your pillow?" I offered.

"Oh no, Hera. I'm just glad I got to see you one last time in that outfit."

"...What do you mean?" I sounded worried.

"I'm being released soon, that's all!" He looked at me strangely.

"Oh, thank god!" I put my hand to my chest. "You had me worried!

"Come look at my collection, Hera." He reached over to a nightstand and pulled off a scrapbook. He collected Postage stamps.

I sat over on the edge of the bed and looked as he flipped to the newest pages. "Oh, Eric! It's us!"

He smiled. "I'm glad you like it, Hera."

I smiled. "I love you, Eric."

"I-" Eric began coughing before he could finished. I grabbed a glass of water off of his nightstand and handed it to him.

Lilac appeared in the hallway. "Nurse Sears is ready for you now!"

"Already?" I asked. "Well.. Okay. Good bye, Eric. I love you."

"Bye, Hera." He waved.

"It's all set up, Hera." Leslie told me. "All we have to do now is pick up your stuff."

"I'm really glad we're doing this, Nurse Sears. I-"

"Dr. Stiles! Come quick!" I turned to see Angie wailing and searching for Derek! The patient in room 403's condition has gotten worse- He has symptons of GUILT! We'll have to operate right away!"

"ERIC?" I screamed. "HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OKAY! I WAS JUST THERE! I-" Before I could run over to Angie, Leslie grabbed and hugged me, not letting me go as tears streamed down my cheeks.


	3. Change Of Heart

Leslie and I waited outside of the ER while Derek and Angie were in there. I tried not to cry on her skirt, because my head was in her lap and she was stroking my hair.

Finally, Dr. Stiles and Nurse Thompson pushed through the ER doors, looking discomforted. I lifted my head up anyway, in hope that they had good news.

Derek walked over to me and got down to my level, holding both my hands. "..I'm sorry, Hera.."

I tried to hold back throwing up all over Dr. Stiles. "Did he have GUILT?"

Derek bit his lip and nodded. "It was Deftera."

"Why couldn't you save him?" I whispered quietly. "You have the Healing Touch, don't you?"

Dr. Stiles looked at me, heavy with the burden sagging on his shoulders. "Even the Healing Touch has its limits."

I looked down.

"Thank you, Dr. Stiles. And you, too, Angie." Leslie thanked them and stood up. I stood up, too and followed her out to the lobby.

"Why did Eric have to die, Leslie? Why now?"

She sighed. "I don't know, Hera. Why don't you rest in the Staff Room and listen to some music? I'll bring you a snack from the vending machine later."

"Thanks. Okay, I will." I picked my backpack off of the receptionist's desk and walked over to the Staff Room.

I walked into the abandoned room and flopped down on the couch. I lazily reached into my bag and pulled out my Mp3 Player and turned it on, cramming the earbuds deep into my eardrum. The first song started playing. A sad one. A generally old one by a has-been artist.

I ripped the earbuds out and threw my mp3 player against the wall. I rolled over on the couch and pulled a pillow over my head, crying.

I swung my head up as I remembered something vital. My heart pounded. Could I really do it? I reached into my backpack and I pulled out a generally large syringe and a small bottle. The cold bottle moved slightly in my hand with the contents moving and swimming around: GUILT.

I didn't know what the strain was. I got this on the... Black Market. Incase this ever happened to anyone I ever cared about ever again.

I swore to god I'd never really use it. It was only for... To make myself feel better if I really wanted to end it all.

But now...

I heard footsteps coming so I quickly put the bottle and syringe in the bottom of my pack to keep them safe. Can't have them breaking in there now, can we?

Dr. Stiles walked into the Staff Room.

"Hera..."

I didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry your upset. I am, too."

".." I bit my lip and glanced over to my Mp3 Player on the floor across the room.

Derek sighed and walked over to it, picking it up. He walked back over to me and handed it back to me. The screen had a crack on it.

"Thanks." I whispered hoarsly.

"Do you need a drink?" He asked.

"No.. I'm just going to go find Nurse Sears." I lied. "Thanks for trying, though, Dr. Stiles. I guess he was just too far along.. Atleast it wasn't.." I gulped. "Savato or Paraskevi." I put my hand to my heart just thinking of the heart-invading parasites.

"Okay, Hera. But be careful.."

I had already walked out of the room. I needed to find an empty, quiet place to do this...

I glanced around, until I finally found what sounded like an empty place: Victor's laboratory. I pressed my face against the glass and looked in the dark room. Yep; definitely vacant.

I pushed through the door and walked to the back of the room. I crouched down and sat the bottle on the floor, pulled the bottle and syringe, and stood up. I took a deep breath.

_"I'm really gonna do it.."_

I screwed the lid off of the lid and dropped it onto the ground and stuck the syringe into the bottle. I held the top with my teeth, using it to pull the GUILT into it without having to set anything down.

I sighed, and inched the syringe towards the vein on my arm.

I heard footsteps coming. No! I wouldn't let anyone stop me! I'd finally found the perfect place to do this. A dark, creepy-looking place. The kind that makes you want to grin with delight.

I looked up as the footsteps finally got too close. I could see Victor walking to the door. He opened it, mumbling to himself about something. He looked up and met my gaze, and quickly, the needle's.

Tears streamed down my face.

"What the hell? Don't do it, Hera!" He rammed into me and pinned me against the wall, shaking me up a little as he was too strong for me. The syringe and bottle fell on the floor, breaking.

I didn't say anything, only sniffed while tears ran down my face.

"Why would you even think about doing that? Do you want to die?"

I sniffed, barely able to talk. "I... I.. Aurgh.." My chest suddenly seized up in intense pain. My body went limp.

"Damn it! What's wrong now?"

He let go of me as I slid down the wall and leaned against it at floor-level. "My chest burns, Dr. Niguel.. I didn't even inject-" I was interrupted by myself as I coughed blood up on the floor.

"Damn it! You better hope for the best, Preston!" He picked me up bridal-style as everything got darker than normal.

"Dr. Stiles! Dr. Chase! Someone just get over here and operate!" He shouted while running around looking for a surgeon.

"I'm here." I heard Dr. Stiles. "I.." He trailed off. Most likely when he realized it was me.

"Don't ask any questions, just do your job!" Victor snapped.

"Alright... ANGIIIE! I NEED YOUR HELP WITH SOMETHING PLEEEEASE!" Derek shouted. _**(SORRY COULDN'T HELP MYSELF ROFL)**_

She came running. "Yes, doctor!"

"We need to get Hera into surgery right away!"

•°•Derek (Dr. Stiles)'s Prespective•°•

"Are you ready to begin the briefing, Doctor?" Angie asked me.

I swallowed. "Yes."

"Patient is fourteen-year-old Hera Preston, a regular Candy Striper volunteer here at Caduceus. Symptoms including a burning pain in her chest and coughing up blood. Chiral Reaction is positive, Pempti bodies detected in the right lung."

"Pempti!" I repeated.

"Yes. According to Victor, she was about to inject herself with some sort of medication or drug, Possibly a toxin. He's processing it now. Shall I continue the briefing?"

I nodded.

"There are two objectives in this operation: Remove the GUILT Pempti. Treat any lacterations and hemorrhaging."

"Alright. Let's begin the operation!"

•°•

"Alright, Doctor, we don't have much time. We need to hurry!"

I disinfected the dotted line on Hera's chest and drew a line on it with the scalpel, making an incision. I could see it, the horrible little thing. I injected a fluid into the hazy objects until the Pempti core was visible. I burned at it with the laser. Until it began to mutate.

"The core! It's splitting in two! It's a mutation!" Angie warned me.

I burned at the little soliders that the cores sent out, trying to destroy them. I had to save Hera, I couldn't let her die, too! It was already a burden having a few patients slip past me already...

"The core is surfacing!"

I held the laser on it, not letting it move. The small organisms coming out of the core took damage, as I held it in the middle of the Pempti core. It was finally vanquished.

"The other Pempti core has become unstable! Chiral reaction is becoming weaker!"

I concentrated, drawing a star with my finger to engage the Healing Touch. Time slowed down as I repeated the laser process on the remaining core and destroyed it. The effect of the Healing Touch faded and normal speed around me increased. Usually when the Healing Touch is used, to the people around me, I am using intense speed. Angie usually comments on it.

"Chiral Reaction Negative. Please treat the remaining wounds, Dr. Stiles!"

I turned my attention to the pooling blood around Hera's lung I had not seen before. I pulled out the drain and drained the blood before suturing the wounds.

"Very good, Doctor. Please close her up."

I finally sutured her close and disinfected the closure before I placed the bandage on it. Hera would live.

•°•Miss Preston's Perspective•°•

My chest felt a bit sore. I blinked my eyes open, seeing pink and green.

"Hera!" Leslie hugged my carefully. "That was a foolish thing you tried to do!" She scolded me. I smiled.

I could see Derek and Angie standing near me. "Thank you.."

Although I could tell he was relieved, they didn't look so forgiving. "Hera, do you know what you had?"

I shook my head.

"You had GUILT Pempti! How could you have gotten that?"

I sighed. "I was in Dr. Nigel's lab, about to inject myself with GUILT. But I didn't do it! He stopped me before I did. It must have been when Amanda, Lilac and I were retrieving the nasty syringes. I got pricked with one of them!"

"Oh, Hera.." Leslie sighed.

"You were pricked with a needle? Why didn't you tell anyone? How did you get GUILT to inject yourself with? Why would you do it?" I didn't answer.

Angie sighed. "Your lucky Dr. Nigel is okay."

I sat up straight. "He was in danger?"

"You had GUILT on the loose!" Angie snapped at me. "Sorry... Yes. He told us it was Triti you were carrying around."

"I never wanted anyone else to get hurt... But.." I smiled. "It was really sweet of him to help me... Leslie?"

"Yes?" She asked me.

I pulled her close and whispered in her ear. "I think I'm in love with Dr. Niguel."


	4. A New Home

"Hera! Surely, your not serious? He's years older than you!" Leslie whispered to me.

I was now speaking in a regular voice. "I said I _think_ I'm in love with him. I'm not sure. He did save my life... You helped, Dr. Stiles...And don't call me Shirley."

Derek looked confused. "What's.. Going on here?" He looked at Angie, who shrugged.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But I thank you, Dr. Stiles. ...You helped, Angie."

They faced each other. "Alright then.. We'll see you soon.." They walked out of the room, closing the door.

"Hera, can I tell you something?" Leslie asked me.

"What?" I turned to look at her.

"Honey, I don't think you're really in love with Dr. Niguel. I think you're in love with what he did."

I bit my lip, not replying for a few seconds. "You might be right." I hung my head.

"I know its hard, after what happened to Eric. But you'll move on, and find someone your own age again."

I sighed, and then reached up to one of my braids. Instead, I grabbed a thinner, smoother, chunk of hair.

"Hmm?" I pulled it to were I could see it.

"They had to take them out, dear. For surgery." Leslie told me.

I sighed. "Oh.."

"I'll help you put them back in." She reached over to the night stand and grabbed my elastic scrunchies off of it, and then reached for three chunks of hair on the left side of my face.

"I'm sorry your going through a hard time right now." She sympathized.

"Life is a bitch." I said, wishing that Eric hadn't died _now._

Leslie stopped braiding to look at me. She sighed, and then continued braiding.

Sure, I loved Nurse Sears. But it takes time to get used to nearly being put in the Foster Care System, y'know?

She finished up that braid and put the scrunchie on. I turned myself so that she could start the next.

"I feel bad that I put Dr. Niguel in danger." I told Leslie.

"I know you didn't mean to," She started, putting the scrunchie on. "But you can't ever pull something like that again!"

"I won't. I promise."

She stood up. "..And next time tell someone if you get pricked by a needle like that!"

"Okay."

My nurse left the room, and I began to think.

_"..When did Dr. Chase operate on someone with Pempti?"_

As I began to get up out of the hospital bed, I realized I was in a gown. I opened the drawer on the nightstand and saw my clothes. I looked around and then picked them out, running into the bathroom as quickly as possible.

As soon as I finished, I stepped out of the restroom. I walked back over to the nightstand and opened the bottom drawer. I pulled my Sidekick and backpack out and opened it up, seeing if I got any new messages.

This is what I got:

Amanda Cherrystone says: **OMG, ARE YOU OKAY? WE HEARD WHAT HAPPENED BUT NO ONE'LL LET US IN TO SEE YOU!** (30 minutes ago)

Lilac Fyals says: **IS AMANDA BEING SERIOUS OR IS THIS ALL A PRANK? **(25 minutes ago)

I chuckled and whipped out my QWERTY keyboard.

Hera Preston says:** NO, IT'S ALL TRUE. I'M OKAY NOW BUT YOU BETTER NOT COME RUNNING OVER HERE, I'M STILL A BIT WEAK FROM THE SURGERY.**

A few seconds later...

Amanda Cherrystone says: **I HEARD YOU GOT SAVATO!**

Hera Prestons says: **NO, IT WAS PEMPTI.**

Lilac Fyals says: **WAIT, SO THIS IS ALL REAL..?**

Hera Preston says: **YES.**

Amanda Cherrystone says: **YES!**

I put my backpack on and closed my sidekick and put it in my apron pocket and buttoned it shut. I wasn't gonna loose my phone, no way!

..

I kinda like how Amanda keeps her phone in her right boot.

Have no idea where Lilac keeps her's, though..

Is that a bad thing?

Hera Preston says: **LILAC, WHERE DO YOU KEEP YOUR PHONE?**

I walked out of the room and pulled my nurse's hat over my eyes. In a way that I could still see, but I didn't want to look at other people looking at me.

I silently walked over to where Victor's lab was. I scooted my hat back up and took a deep breath just before I pushed through the door.

"Dr. Niguel?"

He was looking through a microscope, but didn't look up.

"Would you knock next time?" He asked irritably. Although, I'm sure he was actually demanding it and not giving me an option.

I bowed my head a little. "Sorry. I just... Wanted to thank you."

He scoffed. "You should be thanking Derek. I didn't do anything!"

"I thanked Dr. Stiles and Nurse Thompson already, but.. If it weren't for you, I might not have even made it to the ER in time. Infact, I could have had _two_ strains of GUILT."

"Why are you being so persistent about this?" He asked in his irritable tone.

I folded my hands. "Maybe because what you did was a bit unlike... Well, you."

He slammed his hand on the countertop, and then whipped around to face me. "WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?"

"I just meant it was a bit out of character.. In a sweet kind of way." I smiled and cocked my head to the side.

"Ugh.." He facepalmed. "Just get out and leave me alone.."

"Bye bye." I opened the door and skipped out. I did that all the way down the hallway.

Until I bumped into Lilac and fell on the ground. She peered over her shoulders down at me. I could see she had her phone out.

"In your mom's pants.."

Amanda peered out from behind Lilac at me.

"My mom is dead." I reminded her.

My mom's body was never found, and the hole that the whirlpool had started in closed up as soon as it had finished.

..

They also never told us how it was caused.

Amanda sighed. "I wanna go to the mall."

I stood up. "I don't."

"Yeah, me neither." Lilac commented. "People there always stare at me."

"Maybe you shouldn't have started a fight at the food court." Amanda pointed out.

Lilac sighed. "Yeah.."

A little boy with dark blue hair wandered up to us. He tugged on my skirt. I bent down to his level.

"Will you read me a story?" He asked, holding a book up.

I crouched down to his level and smiled. "Yes." I took the book from him and stood up, offering him two of my fingers to hold as his hands were so small. We walked over to the closest chair and I pulled him up into my lap.

"_The Little Puppy_." I read, and flipped open the first page. "Once upon a time, there was a little puppy. He had brown and white fur. He liked to play out on the moor." I flipped the page. "One day, the little puppy got lost. He didn't know where he was!"

"Oh no!" The little boy cried.

"..But then the little puppy's boy came to find him. 'Here, puppy, Here!' he would call. The puppy heard the boy's voice and ran to him. He was home. The boy and the puppy played everyday on the moor after that, and the boy never let the puppy out of his sight. The end." I closed the book.

"I have a puppy!" The boy told me. "I haven't seen him in awhile..."

I handed the book back to him. "I'm sure you'll see him soon." I smiled.

He climbed off of my lap. "Thank you, lady!" He ran off.

I smiled to myself. Remember when you were a kid and all teenagers looked like adults?

Leslie finally came to find me. "It's time to go home, Hera."

Her shift ends early this day of the week.

I followed her out to her car. It was a cute little bug. Leslie unlocked it and I climbed into the passenger seat with my backpack in my lap. I closed the door and buckled my seatbelt as Leslie did the same.

"Yvonne doesn't get home until later." I told her.

"Well, we should probably wait until later to get your stuff." She backed out of her parking space. "We should probably go straight home."

"Okay."

I stared out the window as we backed out of the parking lot and onto the main road. Leslie turned the radio on low and we listened.

"How far away do you live?" I asked.

"We." She corrected. "About twenty minutes."

Nineteen minutes later we pulled into the parking lot of an apartment building. I got out and closed my door while Nurse Sears locked it. She searched for her key to get her into the lobby. She opened the door and I ran in, hitting the up arrow button on the elevator. It opened as Leslie walked up to me. I jumped in and she followed, hitting the "three" button. About halfway up, the elevator stalled, shaking. I grabbed onto the handrail.

"It's okay, it does that." Leslie reassured me. Soon enough, it started up again and stopped on our floor.

"A28." She told me and I ran over to that door as I waited for her to open it.

"Wow..." I said when she did. "It's really nice, Leslie." I stepped in and looked around.

"I'm glad you like it." She closed the door.

I put my backpack on a coathanger near the door.

"I'm tired." I said.

"I'm sure you are, you had a long day. You can nap, I'll wake you when dinner is ready."

"Thank you, Leslie. This is very kind of you." I took my shoes off and walked over to her sofa.

"You're very welcome, Hera." She said as she put her coat and purse away.

I closed my eyes on the couch, and drifted off to sleep.


	5. TRAUMA TRIO: What Dreams Are Made Of

"Dr. Preston. You're needed in the E.R.. Dr. Preston."

I looked up as I heard my name over the innercom. I pushed my long, single braid back over my shoulder to lay flat against my back.

Already in my scrubs, I walked to the E.R. where I found my assistant looking as lovely as ever.

"Ready to begin the briefing, doctor?" Amanda asked me.

"Yes, Nurse Cherrystone."

"Patient is Mia Walter and has been complaining about pains in her chest. Symptoms are abnormal and her vitals are in the low 50's. There is only one objective in this operation: Find the cause of her pains and eliminate of it."

"Alright..." I washed my hands and slipped my gloves and mask on. "Don't touch me, I'm sterile!"

•°•

"Let's begin. Please disinfect the area and make an incision." Amanda guided me, hands behind her back.

I obeyed, reaching into the open jar of antibiotic gel and removing the tinest blob, applying it to the marked area before I made an incision with my scalpel.

"Her heart looks pretty normal to me.." I observed, looking all around to the beating organ to make sure I hadn't missed anything.

"Don't be so sure." Amanda snorted. Mia's vitals dropped down by ten. "Please, inject the stabilizer!"

I picked up the syringe closest to me and put it into the open vial, pulling the plunger up and filling it with the green liquid. I flicked it with my finger as excesse stabilizer dripped off. I went to inject it into the nearby muscles.

"Wait a minute.." I stopped.

"What's wrong? The patient's vitals are dropping, fast! Please, concentrate!" Amanda shouted.

I jumped back as a large laceration formed diagonally across Mia's heart.

"What the-? Please, suture the wound at once!"

"I think I can find out what's wrong with her!" As I moved my hand over her heart, a bright light flashed. I couldn't even see what I did next.

"Hera! What are you doing?" Amanda cried.

"Hera, Hera! What are you doing? Wake up!"

My eyes flashed open and I realized I was back at Leslie's apartment, back on the couch.

"How did I get-"

"You're gonna be late for school!" She snapped at me. "I'll have to drive you, now.."

"If I bring some clean clothes in a bag, I can change at school, right?" I asked, sitting up now.

Leslie sighed. "Okay, but hurry! Your clothes are in the dryer. I washed them." She looked me up and down. "You need to wash your uniform soon, too."

"Or I can go wash it really quick-"

"Hurry!" She snapped.

"ON IT." I jumped off the couch and Leslie walked off to finish getting ready. I tore my uniform off really quick and threw it in the kitchen sink (after taking my phone out), reaching for the Dawn dishwash. I poured a large pool of it onto my outfit and threw it across the counter so I could return my attention to the uniform and lather it. I turned the sink on full blast, running my fingers over it until I was _sure_ I had gotten all the soap off. I turned the sink off and wrung my outfit out, and then ran to look around for the washing machine and dryer.

I swung the door to the dryer open and tossed my clean clothes out and my uniform in. I slammed the door shut and cranked it to "mostly dry" and punched the Start button. I picked my clothes up off the floor and put all of them but a white tank top on the dryer. I put the tank top on and ran off to find Leslie.

"Can I borrow a-" She pointed a hairbrush at me and I took it, running off to go stare at my reflection in the tv. I took my hair scrunchies out and un-did my braids, brushing my hair out before I put my braids and scrunchies back. I put the hairbrush on the coffee table.

I ran into the kitchen and opened the the fridge, grabbing a Gogurt. I ripped the top and finished the entire thing within a minute. I threw the wrapper away and ran back to Leslie.

"How about some-" She handed me a bottle of mouthwash, which I ran off with to the kitchen sink. I unscrewed the lid and poured some of it in my mouth and swished. Minty. I spat it out and screwed the lid back on, throwing it over to where the Dawn was on the counter.

"I'm ready to go, Hera."

"Uhh.." I grabbed my backpack off of the hook by the door and ran back to the dryer. I reached in and pulled out my uniform. Dry enough. I crammed it on top of a small pencil pouch and realized my phone wasn't there. I ran back to the kitchen and took it off the counter, shoving it into the bottom and then zipped it up.

"READY."

"Great, let's go."

After Leslie and I ran down to her car, she quickly zoomed out of the parking lot. A few miles down the road, her phone began to ring like crazy.

"Can you get that, Hera?"

I reached into her purse and pulled it out. "Tyler Chase". I flipped it open. "Y'ellow?"

"Leslie! Get down here! There's been a huge accident!"

"Dr. Chase..? This is Hera. Nurse Sears is driving her car and-"

"I don't have time to talk. If you're on the road, you can't miss it!" He hung up.

"Dr. Chase just called. It was an emergency! He said there was an accident." I told Leslie.

"I can see it." She said through gritted teeth. I could hear the blaring sirens of Ambulances and Emergency Response vehicles, but no accident.

Leslie made a sharp turn down the street. "We're nearly there, I can just feel it."

After two more turns, she pulled up to the side of the road where Dr. Chase was impatiently waiting infront of several ambulances. I could see Dr. Stiles, Nurse Thompson, Dr. Clarks, and several other doctors from Caduceus USA engaging in emergency surgery or climbing into the ambulances with patients on stretchers and paramedics.

"Leslie!" Tyler cried as she opened her door.

"Wait here, Hera." She commanded and ran off with the doctor.

I pulled the keys out of the ignition and opened the sunroof, peering out.

"Hera!" I turned and saw Amanda and Lilac running towards me, eyes dotted with fear.

"I heard the sirens and got so scared!" Amanda cried. "But then we saw you!"

I glanced at their backpacks. They had been walking to school.

I watched a paramedic and a stretcher go by.

"Get in," I commanded, and swung the car door open.

The girls shoved passed me and climbed into the back seats. I closed the door and pressed the "lock" button on the keys. The headlights flashed. Leslie looked up at us, but was quickly pulled away by Dr. Chase.

•°•

Ten minutes went by.

"Wait, why are they leaving?" Lilac cried, pointing to the doctors climbing into the ambulances that raced away.

"I can't see Leslie!" I shouted, putting my hands on the dashboard and peering out. "She's coming back, right?"

Finally, almost all of the ambulances and doctors had left.

"Wait... Why is that ambulance still there? Why is it vacant?" Amanda cried, climbing forward and pointing out the windshield.

"It's been like that for the last ten minutes!" Lilac shouted angrily. "I've been watching it!"

"It's not vacant!" I snapped. "There's a stretcher in there!"

We glanced at each other. I scrambled for the keys and hit the "unlock" button. I grabbed my backpack and ran over to the ambulance with Amanda and Lilac.

Lilac climbed in and lifted a sheet up off of the stretcher that was laying flat on the bottom of the car. "There's someone here, and they're alive!"

"What are we going to do?" Amanda cried, tearing nearly spilling out of her eyes.

I climbed up and pushed Lilac aside to look at the patient.

"We can't call 911," I observed. "He'll die before they make it!"

Lilac sighed. "I know what we have to do.."

Amanda and I both turned to her.

Lilac crossed one leg behind the other. "You know my uncle, the cop? When I was twelve, he taught me how to drive an Automatic. That's what the ambulance is." She pointed to it. "He said 'Lilac, now only drive in an absolute _emergency_.' I think this is an emergency."

Amanda and I were silent for a moment.

"...You don't know how to drive! Liar!" Amanda pointed at her accusingly.

"Do too!" Lilac defended herself.

"This isn't the time for arguing!" I pushed myself between them. "This man is dying and needs medical attention! Just get up there, Lilac."

She nodded.

"But _DON'T_ screw up!" I added. "I might need to provide medical care..."

Amanda stared at me bug-eyed. "You're both crazy if you think you're going to drive an ambulance and perform surgery!"

"I didn't say surgery!" I snapped.

I turned my back to her and opened my pack. I took my tank top off and replaced it with my uniform. I reached deep down into the bottom of it and pulled out some hand sanitizer, lathering it on my hands.

Amanda climbed up next to me, handing me a clean pair of latex gloves and a mask. She already had a pair of gloves on.

"Thanks." I put them on. "Don't touch me, I'm sterile!"

•°•

"Um. This thing he's hooked up to says his heart rate is at 30." Amanda told me when we closed the ambulance and Lilac had slowly pulled out onto the road.

"Those are his vitals," I replied. "But that's really bad! We need to inject him with something to boost them until we make it back to Caduceus."

"I'll try to take the fastest route," Lilac called back. "There's a GPS installed in the ambulance with the hospital already entered in."

"How about stabilizer?" Amanda asked me.

"Genius!" I called to her. "How did you think of that?"

She held up a green vial with "Stabilizer" clearly written on it.

"Oh.."

"Here," She unscrewed the lid and picked up a syringe, blowing it off, before she handed it to me.

I dipped the tip into the vial and pulled up the syringe. I found a spot on the patient's skin away from any blood or lacerations and injected it. Amanda closed her eyes, but opened them to peek. She opened the other.

"Heart ra- Vitals are up to 37." I heard Lilac turn the sirens on- She must be pulling up close to other drivers now.

I pulled the syringe back into the vial, giving the patient another dose.

"45,"

As I began to inject another dose, Lilac made a jerky turn and the needle broke off.

"LILAC!" I screamed.

"What? There's an assmuch in front of me and I needed to get away!"

"Atleast let us know when you're turning!" I called.

"Here," Amanda handed me a pair of forceps.

I took them from her and carefully pulled out the tip of the needle. She held a tray out and I dropped it and the broken syringe in.

"Vitals dropping! Stay calm and I'll find a new syringe and some other tools for you to use." She crawled around the ambulance.

"I'm going onto the freeway!" Lilac called.

"Alright." Amanda came back with some tools in her apron. "Please, start with the syringe..."

I did so, and injected three doses of stabilizer.

I looked at Cherrystone's tools. "Antibiotic gel." I grabbed it and unscrewed the lid. I stuck my finger in and dabbed a little on the wound where the needle broke off and it quickly healed.

A loud sound filled the ambulance.

"His line is going flat!" Amanda cried. She was right, and his chest stopped moving.

"Cardiac Arrest! Is there a Defibrillator handy?"

"What is that? Is that the shocky thingy?" Amanda cried.

"Never mind... Because I'm CPR certified!"

I placed my hands on the center of the patient's chest. Counting under my breath as I compressed my hands. "Amanda, prepare another syringe with the stabilizer!"

"He isn't looking so good, Hera..." Her voice was dotted with worry as she prepared the syringe.

It got deafeningly loud as I heard more sirens.

"LILAC?" I called as I continued to compress the man's chest.

"IT'S THE POLICE! BUT.. I-I THINK.. THAT THEY UNDERSTAND!"

"THEY CAN SEE YOUR DRIVING, RIGHT?"

Oh come on, you'd say the same thing. What cop would just look at a teenage girl driving an ambulance and _not_ think that over?

The loudness lowered as the patient's heart began beating again and his line began to move again. I smiled under my mask. Amanda handed me the stabilizer and I injected it quickly.

I heard some sort of honking between our ambulance and however many police cars there were.

"They're surrounding the ambulance, but don't worry! We're exiting off onto the ramp now!"

"Another dose, Amanda!" She obeyed and we continued to inject it until his vitals were stable.

"..There's alot of hemorrhaging around here. We need to drain it somehow."

Amanda looked through her tools. "Well I think there's a drain, here.. But I don't think it's hooked up or know how it works."

I glanced at her tools. There certainly was a drain. It was a lovely sight. I could practically hear the angels singing. I wonder if Eric is- No! Not a good time to think about that!

"I have an idea, Amanda. Hand me that empty syringe."

She obeyed. I broke the needle off so that it looked just like one of those syringes you use to give a liquid to someone orally.

"You better grab a cup or something," I warned her and I hovered it over a pool of blood. She set her tools down and crawled away. I lightly touched the blood to the syringe and pulled the plunger up, bringing the blood up into it. Amanda came back with a small jar and unscrewed the lid. I held the syringe over it and pushed the plunger down, emptying it into the container.

"I can see Caduceus, girls!" Lilac called.

"Just a little more, Hera. Do you wanna drain more blood?"

I wasn't listening. I was staring off into space, thinking about that dream. What was it that I had done? I began tracing my finger's across the undamaged parts of the patient's skin. When suddenly...

I felt a bit dizzy. "What... The.. H-H.."

"Hera, what's wrong..?" Amanda stared at me.

I stared at a beating, glowing yellow star over where the patient's heart should be. What was this? What did it mean? I pointed at it.

"Yes, Hera. Cuts and blood. I can see that."

I shook my head. "N-No.."

"Then I don't know what you're talking about. I think you should drain more blood."

"H-How can you not see it?" I asked, hoarsly, pulling my mask down. The ambulance came to a stop. Was it getting hot in here? I dropped the syringe, and sunk down onto the floor.

"H-Hera?" Amanda stuttered.

The ambulance doors swung open. I could see police officers, Dr. Clarks, and Mr. Kasal gazing at me. The sun burned my eyes.

"Mr. Kasal.." I whispered.

He didn't say anything. The police officers pulled the stretcher out and wheeled it off with Dr. Clarks following. Derek and Angie ran up next to Mr. Kasal.

"What happened?"

"Ambulance left behind... Had to get it to hospital.. Lilac drived... Broken syringe.. Cardiac Arrest.. Pretty..Pretty Stars.."

"Pretty stars? What pretty stars?" Derek demanded.

Amanda forced me to sit up and held her hand under my head. "She's exhausted!"

"..And what do you mean Lilac drived?" Angie asked a little more calmly.

Lilac unbuckled her seat belt and crawled back behind us. "What do you mean? I drove.."

"Lilac?" A figure in a police officer's uniform walked up to us.

"Hi, Uncle Stew." She replied.

He crossed his arms. "That was some fancy driving you did there."

She bit her lip.

"...But it was an emergency." He finished.

"Good job, Lilac." Mr. Kasal said.

"It wasn't just me." Lilac finished. "Hera kept the patient alive and Amanda assisted her."

"I don't feel so hot.." I told them.

"We should get her inside." Angie said. "..And someone alert Nurse Sears."

"Come here, you." Derek picked me up and began walking towards the building with Angie following.

"People sure like carrying me."

He chuckled. Man, no one was taking this as bad as I thought they would.


	6. DUOGUILT

•°•Derek's Perspective•°•

Could Hera possibly be blessed with the Healing Touch like myself? I glanced at Angie, as we swifty walked through Caduceus with an exhausted Hera in my arms. I wondered if Angie was thinking the same thing as me, but it seemed as if her mind was pre-occupied with other things as she focused on the path ahead.

I made eye contact with Victor from across the hall. He walked up to us, stopping us. "I need to talk to you both, it's urgent." He glanced at Hera, and she looked back at him, a bit confused, as if she were becoming unaware of what was around her she was so tired.

"Leslie!" I flagged down the nurse.

"You found Hera!" She cried in shock. I pushed Hera into the nurse's arms and quickly followed Dr. Niguel, as he'd already started walking away.

He opened the door to his lab and walked in. Being so close behind him, the door practically hit me since he didn't hold it behind him. However, I held the door completely open for Angie as she caught up at last.

I closed the door behind me.

"What's this about?" She asked.

"It's about that Sullans kid you operated on. That wasn't normal Deftera, Derek." Victor said, his tone becoming a big more angry.

"What?" Angie gasped.

"How can that be?" I cried.

"Or should I say.. That Triti wasn't normal."

"Triti?"

"There were two strains of GUILT active at once, but the Triti was mostly hiding inside the Deftera and under the surface of that kid's pancreas."

Angie looked at me. "No wonder we had such a hard time with the drain! Those tumors would have been as hard as.."

"..As an organ being petrified by Triti. They were more powerful, too. Not to mention it was hard to suture lacerations.." I concluded.

Victor nodded. "Exactly."

"Hera's going to be devastated.." Angie pointed out.

I glanced at Victor, his arms crossed. He didn't say anything, but I knew what he was thinking.

"Hera said she saw a star while she was helping that patient. Maybe that has something to do with Eric's case."

"Hmmph.. She shouldn't have been doing that any way. None of them should have! We'll be lucky if Caduceus isn't sued."

Would they really sue Caduceus if they patient had made it, no damage done to him or the ambulance? Or even if the patient doesn't sue..

Could Caduceus be on a legal spot?

•°•Hera's Perspective•°•

"I'm so sorry about what happened, Hera." Leslie told me as she handed me a glass of ice water.

"It wasn't your fault, Leslie. You were only doing your job." I took the glass from her and drank from it.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better. I won't need to stay in a room much longer."

"Hera?"

I looked up and saw Dr. Stiles standing in the doorway.

"Y-Yes?"

He walked over and knelt beside me, holding onto my hands. "I have some bad news."

..Oh no.

"Eric was actually infected with two strains of GUILT that mutated with eachother. Nicknamed "DUO-GUILT".

"…"

"Hera, don't look at me like that."

"I-I'm okay with his death now, Dr. Stiles. However… This "DUO-GUILT" is unacceptable."

The doctor smiled. "That's the Hera I know. But, can you tell me, when you saw that star?"

"Oh yes, that. I believe I drew a star on the surface of the patient's ski n with my finger." I told him. "A bright, glowing star appeared over his heart!"

"That is.. Interesting. Well, Hera. I think you're okay to leave whenever." Dr. Stiles said, standing up.

"Alright, doctor. After I take a nap, promise."

And I've thought about it. I truly can accept Eric's death now. Because.. I do have faith that my heart has moved on.


	7. A New Challenge

It was really nice that you offered to be our medic, Preston." Mark smiled at me, holding up his AirSoft gun.

"Yeah," Jack joined in. "Besides, we were looking to have more girls join our team."

"OH, it's no problem!" I told them. "The girls and I were glad to."

"Speaking of which, I think Reuben likes Amanda… It's alright to be on first-name basis with you ladies, right?" Mark asked, cocking his head.

"Someone likes Amanda…? Oh, of course! Yes, first names are perfectly acceptable."

"I heard he was going to give her a present soon," Jack whispered.

"How cute!" I clasped my hands together. "Amanda's found love!"

"Aiiieee!"

"Sounds like him now.." Mark grumbled. I slid my *mini* backpack sized first aid kid off my arm by its handle as Amanda approached us with a boy with short hair and dark skin with his arm wrapped around her as he limped towards us.

"Poor Reuben.." Amanda whispered, laying him down.

"What happened?" I asked, kneeling.

"I got shot in the knee.." He breathed.

"Alright…" I sanitized my hands, slipped on latex gloves, and put a mask on. I held my right hand up like I wanted someone to honk their horn, and my left hand I held down at a diagonal angle. "Don't Touch Me, I'm Sterile.."

•°•

"Okay, Hera. We've sterilized the wound with the wipes. Now what do you want me to do?" Amanda asked me through her mask.

"The best thing we could do is get him out of here."

"But no one's found his mom yet."

"Dammit… Okay. Hand me my First Aid Kit."

My assistant unzipped it and held it out to me. I flipped through it until I came across the blue forceps. She wiped them off with one of the sanitizing wipes before handing them back to me.

I inspected Reuben's leg. "I can definetly see a BB in here.."

"Hera…" Amanda stared at me, eyes wide.

All of the First-Aid books I have ever read specifically told me _not_ to remove the foreign object. However, something inside me now was screaming at me to do it, and to do it now.

I reached in and took hold of the BB, as I began to pull it out, Reuben screamed. Horribly.

"Hera, what are you doing?" Amanda cried. "Stop it! Stop it now!"

Finally it was out. I dropped it and the forceps on the ground and I pulled out some of my antibacterial spray and bandages wraps. I sprayed both the wound and the bandages and tied them onto his leg.

"Good news, Hera, we've found his mom!" Jack called, covering his hand over his walkie talkie.

"Great.. Now we can get Reuben to the hospital."

•°•

"Hera, I don't think it was a good idea that you took the BB out of Reuben's knee," Leslie told me after we'd arrived.

I sighed. "I know, I know..But something just kept screaming for me to do it."

"Well, we have twenty minutes before we need to hit the road if we wanna meet everyone down at the bay at the same time.. So go find the girls, you can all go change now."

I nodded and walked around until I found Amanda reading to a little girl next to one of the other check-in spaces.

"Amanda, it's time to go get changed."

"….The end. It was nice meeting you, Lily." Amanda smiled and shook the little girl's hand.

"Bye!" Lily smiled, taking the book back from Amanda.

I pushed through the bathroom door with Amanda behind me. "Anyone in here?" I called out.

"Yo," Lilac called from a stall.

"Oh good, she's here."

Amanda and I each climbed a stall on each side of Lilac and we began to change into our bathingsuits. Mine was a black and white one-piece with a small, ruffled tutu on it. I slipped on my pair of black and white flipflips and sat on the sink counter to wait for my friends.

Next out was Amanda. She had a white bikini with tendrils hanging down because hers tied on.

"Dang, girl, that's a nice bikini you got there." I told her.

She smiled. "Thanks, Hera. I've never seen that one before." I gave her a thumbs up.

"Ta da!" Lilac spun out. Wearing a normal bikini but in lavender colors, her favorite color.

So we clapped.

"Okay, come on, ladies, Leslie is waiting for us." I picked my bag up off the sink.

"It sure was nice of Nurse Sears to drive us," Amanda said after she had her bag back.

Lilac nodded. "Now I don't have to pretend there's an emergency to drive us there!"

Amanda and I glanced at her.

"I mean.."

I sighed. "Let's go.."

I pushed through the bathroom door and walked out to the parking lot with my friends where I saw Leslie's car. Inside the windshield, I could see her reading.

I walked around to the passenger seat and pulled the door open and sat down in the seat while Leslie put her book in a beach bag. I closed the door and buckled my seat belt, and then looked back at my friends. Amanda sat behind me and Lilac sat behind Leslie.

"So, Hera, are you nervous?" Lilac leaned forward and grinned to me once we had pulled onto the road.

"I'm not sure what you mean.."

"Come on, Hera, don't play dumb with me. I am, of course, talking about going swimming."

I felt my face go red. "Um…" I turned forward again and looked down, my bangs casting a shadow over my eyes.

"Lilac!" Amanda cried, hitting her. "Look what you did! I've been waiting _years_ to swim with Hera!" She crossed her arms. "Now all I have is boring ol' you."

Leslie chuckled. "Well this time, Amanda, you have most of the staff at Caduceus. I might swim with you later."

Amanda dipped her head. "Thank you, Nurse Sears."

"Hey," Lilac started. "We're here already?"

"It seems so," Leslie told her and pulled into a parking space.

Lilac and Amanda jumped out of the car as soon as Leslie turned the engine off, and grabbed me before I even started getting out.

•°•Angie's Perspective•°•

"Looks like the girls and Leslie made it," Derek observed.

"How do you think she'll hold up?" I asked from the ground under an umbrella while I read a book in my blue bikini.

"I don't know, which worries me." Does he not believe that Hera has recovered from her boyfriend's death? "I'm surprised Victor came," he said, changing the subject.

"Yeah, I would have thought he would have stayed in his lab anyways. I'm glad he came. It'll be good for him."

He scanned the beach with his eyes "Hey, Angie, wanna play?" He asked me. I glanced up and saw Tyler waving to us with a Frisbee.

"Oh no, you go ahead. I'll join you later." He nodded and ran off.

Once he had left, I pulled a piece of paper and pencil out of inside my romance novel. "DUO-GUILT" it read uptop.

I scanned down the paper until I found two blank spaces. I filled them in as "Deftera" and "Triti". I folded the piece of paper back up and put it in the back of my book with the pencil and continued reading.

•°•Derek's Perspective•°•

"Tyler!" I called out as I ran up to him.

"Hey!" He waved. "It's been awhile since we played, hasn't it?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it has!"

"Go long!" He called, ready to throw it.

"Hey, alright!"I ran backwards until he threw it and I alligator caught it. "Nice throw!"

I got in a stance, ready to throw it. "Hey, Derek, I think we have a situation!" He pointed to the girls where Amanda and Lilac were trying to drag Hera out of a circle drawn in the sand. She was sitting down in it with her arms crossed, pouting.

"Well, let's invite them over here," I shouted back to him.

He nodded. "Hey, Trauma Trio!" Trauma Trio? Oh, it's one of Tyler's freaky nicknames. "Come over here!"

Amanda and Lilac stopped climbing on Hera and ran over to us, and Hera slowly followed.

I walked up to my friend. "You come up with some pretty weird nicknames," I told him, just as the girls came up to us.

Now that I think about it, when we get back to Caduceus, I'd like to check on that Reuben boy. His description sounds a lot like the boy Angie and I treated for GUILT back in Africa a few years back.

But I wonder…

Because I don't recall treating Reuben for PGS, unless he was brought to Caduceus Europe.

•°•Hera's Perspective•°•

"Hello, Dr. Stiles. Hello, Dr. Chase." I greeted the two doctors.

"Hey, Hera. Ready to play?" Dr. Stiles asked, holding the frisbee.

"Actually, doctor, I was going to see if I could talk to Dr. Niguel." I smiled. "But thank you for the offer."

"Oh, um. Alright, Hera." The doctor replied as I skipped off.

"Hmm…" I thought. "Now where would Dr. Niguel be right now..?" I scanned the beach. "Hey, that looks like Dr. Niguel's bag." I walked over to a navy blue bag sitting next to the underneath of a boardwalk that went horizontally across the beach with steps leading down except for the spot that the girls dragged me into. I looked underneath it. "Dr. Niguel… What are you doing under there?"

"I'm under here so I can see on my tablet," He told me, not looking up from the device. "I can't see out there."

I sat next to him. "You know, there's probably all kinds of disgusting things under here. Like spiders."

"I like spiders." He replied.

"Oh. Cool, um, so last time you didn't really wanna listen to my thanking you but now since you don't have a choice I'm gonna say it again anyways."

..No reply.

"I wanted to thank you because you stopped me from making a huge mistake…. ..Even if I had to go the ER anyways because I was too stupid to tell anyone I got pricked by a disgusting dirty needle."

He looked up a little.

"Hey, what's this?" I crawled over to a drawing in the sand.

"It's a spider," He replied.

"Don't lie to me, it totally looks like a rose."

"Shut up.."

"Woah.." I said, looking at it more carefully "It's pretty good, did you draw it?"

He nodded, but wasn't very happy about it.

I kind of wanted to ask him why he became a doctor if he was such a good artist, but I already had him in somewhat of a good mood and didn't want to ruin it.

"Hera, come look at this."

I obeyed and crawled over. Dr. Niguel picked up a stick and began drawing in the sand.

"This is you," He drew a head-shot portrait of me (very good, might I add) of me in the sand. "Now this is Dr. Stiles and Dr. Kimishima." Dr. Kimishima? I think I've heard of her before.

"..And this is the Healing Touch." He drew a star branching off from each of us. "We already know that Dr. Stiles can use his Healing Touch to enhance his speed and that Dr. Kimishima can use hers to raise the patient's vitals, buts.. We still don't know what your's does."

I cocked my head. "I have the Healing Touch..?"

"That's what we think," He finished.

"You know, before I woke up that morning, I was having a dream. I was a surgeon and Amanda was my assistant. I have no idea where Lilac was or what she was supposed to be. Amanda and I began a procedure on a patient with bizarre symptoms, and in the middle of the operation I cried 'I think I can find out whats wrong with her!' so I moved my hand over her heart and then suddenly everything went white like I was going blind or something freaky like that. And Amanda cried 'Hera! What are you doing?' and then Leslie woke me up."

Dr. Niguel snorted. "I'm sure it has nothing to do with this."

I shrugged. "Okay." I turned back to him. "Hey, wait! Why don't we just test my Healing Touch a few times to see what it does?"

He glanced at me, obviously interested in what I just said. "You mean like a scientific experiment with trials so we can research it?"

I nodded.

"Even if we did, it would do serious damage to your body. In addition to that, you might not even really have it. That could have just been you hallucinating when you were dizzy or your eyes playing a trick on you. And even if you did have it, it wouldn't matter because you aren't a surgeon. I think you might be better off finding out when you're older."

I sighed. "I understand."

"So why aren't you doing kid stuff with your friends? Instead your sitting under here with me with the 'disgusting things'."

"Well you aren't half bad to talk to when you aren't stressed and annoyed as much." I admitted. "And also because they're trying to push me into the bay against my will…. Since that was probably a hint for me to leave, I'll see you later." I got up and walked out from underneath the boardwalk. I looked around and saw Nurse Thompson reading so I ran over to her.

"Hi, Nurse Thompson." I greeted and sat down.

She looked up at me. "Hello, Hera."

"What are you reading? Is it good?"

"It's called _The Heroine And Her Prince_, and it is very good. I'd recommend it to you." She told me, showing me the cover. "It's by May Pathgrave."

I nodded. "Cool, cool. .. Hey, so why is Amanda asleep?" I poked the lump of girl next to me.

"Oh," Nurse Thompson chuckled. "She said she was tired after playing with Lilac and had a headache so I let her rest over here with me."

"So I guess Lilac's out playing in the ocean by herself?" I asked, to no one in particular, while not taking my eyes off Amanda. Somehow the thought of Lilac playing in the ocean by herself scared me. Not in a "the ocean is a dangerous place" kind of way, but more of an "I don't trust that she can take care of herself because she's my friend and she's lame" kind of way. Okay that didn't come out right, now it just sounds mean. I think what I meant was to compare her as a little kid that doesn't like to listen to her parents…. Close enough.

"Actually, I think she's pretending to be mermaids with a boy she just met." The Nurse told me, a sweatdrop on her head.

"Wow, I never imagined that Lilac would pretend to be a mermaid." I looked out into the ocean. "Hey, I think I know that kid! He goes to our school and for our cultural background week he did his presentation on Korea, since that's where his grandparents are from."

"That's really cool, I'd like to go to Korea one day." Nurse Thompson told me. "Hera, is it alright if you watch Amanda for a little bit?"

I nodded. "Oh, sure. I don't know what else to do anyways."

She smiled. "Thanks, I'll be back soon. I wanted to play Frisbee with Dr. Stiles and Dr. Chase." She put her book in her back and stood up.

I gave her a thumbs up as she ran over to them.

I inspected my friend. Hmm, she wasn't laying on a beach towel. I found a purple pail and a yellow shovel sitting next to her and got an awesome idea.

I picked up the bucket and ran down to the shore. "Dude, this is going to be so sweet!" I whispered as I filled the bucket up with water and ran back to our spot.

I poured the water into the sand to moisten it and used it to construct a barrier around Amanda and I. This took a few trips, but eventually I built a sandcastle around us in a square shape. By this time, Lilac and Paul got jealous so they constructed their own fort a few yards across from us. Ha ha, sucks for them they had to picked up wet sand with their hands to use.

I peered over the edge of my fort so that only my eyes and the bridge of my nose were visible and stared at Lilac, who was staring at me. Mostly the whole time we were only just glaring at eachother. Paul had to take his glasses off to do so.

The battle has begun.

•°•Amanda's Perspective•°•

"Dr. Preston. You're needed in the E.R.. Dr. Preston."

I looked up at the intercom as it called my friend's name. Although they had called her to the E.R., she'd be in the O.R. very shortly.

"Are you ready to begin the briefing, doctor?" I asked her, currently wearing a very light pink dress with a big magenta bow in the back. And of course, a pair of boots the same color as my dress and a nursing hat. My ID card dangled around my neck. If Nurse Thompson was allowed to dress in such a fashion back in my day, then I should be able to, too.

"Yes, Nurse Cherrystone." My friend replied, already wearing scrubs.

"Patient is Mia Walter and has been complaining about pains in her chest," I started. "Symptoms are abnormal and vitals are in the low 50's. There is only one objective in this operation: Find the cause of her pains and eliminate of it."

"Alright.." I watched as Hera washed her hands, slipped her gloves and mask on, and then used her famous quote. "Don't touch me, I'm sterile!"

•°•

"Let's begin. Disinfect the area and make an incision." I held my hands behind my back and had a serious face, as I usually did during the operations.

Hera obeyed, reaching for the antibiotic gel as she always did to start and using a blob to disinfect the area before whipping out her scalpel to perform the next task.

"Her heart looks pretty normal to me.." She inspected all inches of the organ.

"Don't be so sure." I snorted. She really shouldn't let her guard down. Mia's vitals dropped by ten. "Please, inject the stabilizer!"

Hera plunged the closest syringe into the vial of stabilizer and pulled the plunger up, filling it with the green liquid. She flicked the needle tip with her finger and it dripped before it was injected into muscles.

"Wait a minute.." She stopped.

"What's wrong? The patient's vitals are dropping fast. Please, concentrate!" I shouted.

Hera jumped back a few inches as a giant laceration formed diagonally across the patient's heart.

"What the-" I held my fingers near my mouth in confusion, and then in anger. "Please, suture the wound at once!"

"I think I can find out what's wrong with her!" She reached her hand over the patient's heart.

"Hera! What are you doing?" I cried.

Suddenly, I began to scream. I had no idea why, but I was.

"Amanda, AMANDA!" I felt movement. I opened my eyes and saw Hera shaking me.

I sat up, breathing fast. "It was just.. A dream?"

She nodded. "Hey, Lilac and Paul are seriously pissing me off. Let's go raid their camp."

"How did I get in here?" I asked, looking around at the sand castle before me.

"Never mind that." Hera put a pail on my head and a shovel in my hand, she already had the same on herself.

She stood up. "ATTAAAAAAACK!" She screamed, jumping over the wall and charging for another sand castle a few feet away. I stayed where I was and watched as Lilac jumped up and drove a stick against the length of Hera's shovel, whereas Paul, a boy I knew from our school, jumped up with a plastic bag tied around his neck loosely as a cape. Lilac beat Hera with her stick until Dr. Chase joined in as the King of the Bay and Nurse Sears took pictures.

•°•Hera's Perspective•°•

So at the end of the day I went home with a few minor bruises and plenty of pictures to remember the day when Lilac beat the crap out of me at the bay. I still have no idea why Amanda freaked out like that it was pretty weird, or why Dr. Chase referred to us as the Trauma Trio. I mean, actually, that's pretty cool and he did make a really awesome King of the Bay. I think Paul might like Lilac but it would be pretty freaky sad if Amanda dated Reuben and Lilac dated Paul and I was forever alone because my boyfriend died. But it's okay now because my heart has moved on to someone else.

I won't stop missing Eric, though, ever.

However. I find it strange how I had that creepy dream the night that he died.


	8. DEVIOUS SCHEMES: Rise of Karl

•°•Castalia's Perspective•°•

"…So, you're saying, sir, is that DUO-GUILT was only a cover up?" I asked my boss, Karl Raitenau.

"That's right, Castalia. And with the only sinner dead, we won't have to worry about being infected with it ourselves. However.."

"What, Sir?" I asked, cocking my head.

"There's still a chance that we could be infected with my latest creation: Akumu."

"A-..Akumu?" I was very confused.

"Come now, my blonde-haired pretty," Although he was far younger than me, (I was 34) Karl linked arms with me. "Let us visit you're new partner in crime." He walked me until we reached a culture tank with a being in there.

"I-It's a girl!" I cried.

"Not just any girl," He began. "But a personified version of the GUILT strain "Tetarti." Not to mention, it's new sinner. She's blind, so we can't guarantee how coordinated she'll be."

"What am I supposed to do with her?" I asked as pieces from my blonde ponytail fell around me and my black jumpsuit.

"Easy," Karl said, very chill and laid back. "You and her will be infecting people with Akumu."

"It would be nice if we knew what it did.." I muttered.

"You don't need to know," He said, unhooking himself from me. "Just that it will leave its victims with tremendous pain."

"I think.. I think.. I think I know just who to infect." I said, outloud.


	9. Old Demons

That night I lay away on the couch in pajamas that look like a striped prison uniform. What's with me and stripes? What's with me and black and white?

Before I went to bed I had undone my braids to brush my hair, when noticed something at the ends…

Blonde hair.

I knew that my pink highlights usually had to be renewed, but I never had to have my hair redyed..

The farthest I remember into my childhood was when I was five years old and I woke up in our house in Washington. My mother said I fell asleep at the hair salon when I was having my hair done, and that my contacts prescription had just been filled and we were waiting for me to try them on.

When I saw the blonde tips, a fiery chill started in my head that soon spread over my entire body..

•°•

"_**Mama, I delivered that cookie with the triangles and crystals painted on it to that girl, just like Uncle Adam said to." A girl of about five years with blonde hair past her shoulder blades and blue eyes says as one, tiny braid hangs from the left side of her face being kept in by a pink bow.**_

"_**You know Adam isn't your real uncle, right?" A woman with a black and orange jumpsuit, a blonde ponytail and gold eyes says to the young girl. **_

_**The girl looked up at the older woman. "I know, but he says to call him that." She looks down at her black dress with a white lacey trim, and then smoothes it with her hands. "Mama," She says, looking up at the woman again.**_

_**The woman glances at her. "What?"**_

"_**..Why do the people I give cookies to never come back?"**_

"_**You're stupid, Hera." The woman says. "Shut up, and be quiet. 'Uncle Adam' will need you soon."**_

•_**°•**_

My head began to ache. I ignored it, and tried to go back to bed.

But here I am.

..That… That girl was me as a five year old. She looks so different from what I look like now…

But.. That woman looked nothing like my mother! She had pink hair… I think. Blue eyes..? She never wore it in a ponytail.

Adam.. .T-That's the man that founded…

"Leslie!" I cried, out into the dark. "Leslie, Leslie!"

I heard a noise come from her room a few yards away before the light turned on and Leslie stood in her doorway in a silk night gown. "What's wrong? Did you have a bad dream?"

I shook my head. "N-No… I think.. I think my family used to be involved with Delphi…."

•°•After I tell Leslie about my vision•°•

"That's really strange…" Leslie commented. "You said this right after you noticed your hair growing out? Well, we don't go back to Caduceus until Monday, So you'll have to survive until then."

I nodded. "Okay, I'll try to do that, Leslie. I'll tell you whatever happens. I promise." I like how Leslie remained so calm the entire time.

Leslie smiled. "That's my girl," She said, touching my shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," I said as she disappeared back into her room.

I glanced at the table next to the couch and picked my sidekick up and opened it.

Hera Preston says: **HEY, LITTLE MONSTER. YOU AWAKE?** (2 minutes ago)

Little Monster says: **I'M AWAKE, HERA. **(1 minute ago) _(NOTE: CONTACT'S NAME SUCCESSFULLY CHANGED)_

Hera Preston says: **MARK, I CHANGED YOUR NAME IN MY CONTACTS. YOU ARE OFFICIALLY "LITTLE MONSTER" AND JACK IS GOING TO BE "SHORTSTOP". DOESN'T DR. CHASE COME UP WITH GREAT NICKNAMES?**

Little Monster says: **THAT'S COOL. HEY, I'M SLEEPY. IS IT ALRIGHT IF I GOT TO BED? GOODNIGHT. **

Hera Preston says: **OF COURSE. YOU MADE ME SLEEPY YOU MUUST BE REALLY BORING HA HA GOOD NIGHT.**

Talking always makes me feel better.


	10. Akumu

"Leslie," I said, sitting up on the couch with my phone. "Amanda wants to know if she and Lilac can come over. They wanna bring Little Monster."

Leslie looked up from the kitchen, where she was making eggs for breakfast. "Who, that nice boy Mark? Well, sure. Just make sure you clean up a little before they get here. Do they need a ride?"

I scrolled back through my text messages. "Mmm… No. Amanda's older sister would be driving." I slid the keyboard out and began writing to Amanda that Leslie had approved.

"Is she the one that wants to work in Endoscopy?" Leslie asked.

"Yeah," I replied, and hit the "Send" button.

"Hmm.. I have a friend that works in Endoscopy. Very nice, I hope you can meet her one day." Leslie told me, beginning to speak louder as the eggs sizzled in the pan.

"What's her name?" I called, also raising my voice.

"Tomoe Tachibana," Leslie replied.

Amanda Cherrystone says: **COOL, BE THERE… AT SOME POINT.** _(1 second ago)_

I closed my phone and set it on the table.

I got down on the floor and crawled over infront of the TV where my box was, and began picking my crap up off the floor and putting it back in there.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something shiny. "Huh? What's this..?" I picked up a silver, spiral shaped pendant. "I don't remember _ever_ having something weird like this.."

•°•

"_**Uncle Adam did you say you wanted to see me?" Hera asks as she approaches the living corpse.**_

"_**Yes… You gave away that Triti cookie, didn't you?" He replies.**_

"_**The cookie with the triangles?" Hera, asks in confusion, cocking her head to the side. "Yeah!"**_

"_**Good girl. Say, what's your father's name again?" Adam ventures.**_

"_**Abioud Adrastos." The girl replies, hoping she has pronounced it the right way, and lifts her head back up.**_

"_**We have a new medicine we need you to put into him," Adam begins to tell her.**_

"_**How? Will it hurt him?" Hera asks, cocking her head to the side again. "I don't want him to get hurt."**_

"_**It's going to help him live a more natural life," Adam explains. "Dr. Adrastos will no longer save souls destined to die."**_

"_**Will he ever come back, Uncle Adam? I want Daddy to come back. The other people I give your stuff to don't ever come back. I don't like it. I want Daddy to-"**_

"_**You'll do it because I say so." Adam says in a harsher tone, causing Hera to cringe. She nods and then leaves his presence. **_

•_**°•**_

I wake up and find myself laying on my back on the couch with something cold on my forehead, possibly an icepack. "Les.. lie..?" I say in a raspy, dehydrated voice.

"Leslie is looking for Aspirin with Amanda and Lilac," I looked up and see Mark. "Little Monster!" I say, excitedly.

Leslie returns holding two tablets in her hand and Amanda has a glass of water. I take them and swallow both items together.

"Did I pass out or something?" I asked Leslie.

"No," She answers. "But you were talking funny and sweating a little. Your forehead was hot so I brought you over here when your friends came."

"….Adam wanted me to inject my father with some sort of drug." I said dryly.

They jumped back. "W-What?"

"I saw that vision when I found that thing," I pointed to the pendant on the floor. Leslie went over to pick it up.

"T-This is!" She cried. "I have to speak to Dr. Hoffman, please excuse me for a moment." She took the pendant and left the room.

"What was that about..?" Little Monster asked.

"I don't know, Mark. But since no one invited you and you have absolutely no chance at a career in the medical field you should just go home as we are the Trauma Trio and not the Trauma Quartet." Lilac said in almost one breath.

"Oh, Lilac, be nice!" Amanda elbowed her.

"Yo, I was only speaking the truth!" Lilac defended.

"Well, you're right that I probably don't have a chance at being a doctor," Monster said. "But that doesn't mean I can't hang out with you girls. I won't break up the trio, I promise." He looked at each of us. "Besides, Jack and I are gonna have way better jobs as part of the SWAT Team."

"You and Shortstop?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Woah, woah woah!" Lilac reached over, grabbing Little Monster by his shirt collar. "You think that the itsy bitsy SWAT Team is gonna surpass the entire medical field? Well, think again!" She shoved him and he fell on the ground.

"Lilac, Stop bullying him!" Amanda, said and then pulled a rubberband out of her pocket and began snapping Lilac's wrists with it until they were completely red.

"I just got off the phone with Dr. Hoffman," Leslie said from the entrance to her bedroom. "He wants us at Caduceus ASAP." She glanced at Amanda, Lilac, and Little Monster. "I've afraid the three of you will have to come as well."

Monster shrugged, pretending he didn't care. " 'Is cool."

"Alright," Leslie said, pulling a coat on. "Then we should probably go."

•°•

The city was dark and yellow lights reflected down onto us as we drove in a tunnel under a freeway/highway. Whatever the difference is, I could care less about those things. So far everyone had been completely silent, but I glanced to the backseat anyways.

Lilac and Monster were both constantly looking down at the floor and out the window. Lilac was behind Leslie as usual and Little Monster was behind me with Amanda in the middle, who was mostly looking at the floor and sometimes out the front windshield. The three of them looked just as worried as Leslie and I did, although I tried not to look worried for their sake.

Leslie drove out of the tunnel. We'd be at Caduceus soon, I could see it a little from here.

I was getting nervous, so to take my mind off things I reached into the glovebox and pulled out Leslie's driving registration and looked at it.

"Hera, sweetie, please put that back." Leslie told me, voice trembling. Without saying a word, I did as I was told and folded my hands in my lap, looking down.

As the car slowed I looked up and saw Dr. Hoffman standing outside the main entrance waiting for us. Apparently it was a slow night, as there weren't a lot of cars in the lot, it was quiet, and I couldn't see people running left and right as usual. She stopped the car in the loop. "I'm going to go around the back and meet you in there soon, Hera." Leslie told me. "Take this and go with Dr. Hoffman." She put something cold in my hands. "And _don't_ look at it."

I nodded and put the pendant in my pocket without looking at it, just as Leslie told me. I opened the car door and got out. The minute I closed the door Leslie sped off to park with my friends still in the car. Why weren't they allowed to come with me?

I looked at Dr. Hoffman, his face was really serious but the two or three other times I've seen him his expression was gentle and kind.

"Dr. Hoffman..?" I asked, looking up at him as soon as I was a foot or less away from him. "What's going on?"

"I'll see if I can explain," He pushed the door open. "Follow me."

Without saying a word I followed him, my mind drifting. It didn't seem long until we were in an officey-looking room like Dr-Mr. Kasal's except bigger and fancier.

"Sit," He pointed to a chair on the other side of a desk. Wow, I feel like I'm in trouble or something. I quietly sat down.

"Am I in trouble?" I squeaked.

"That depends," He replied. Now I'm scared. "Leslie's been telling me that you've been seeing strange things lately?"

"Yeah," I said. "Like when I could see that my hair was returning to its natural color and when I found this freaky thing mixed in with my stuff," I reached into my pocket and put the pendant on the desk without looking at it.

Dr. Hoffman glanced down at it and his expression changed to something I could not understand. "What kind of things?" He asked, his tone unchanging.

"Well," I began. "There was a little girl that kind of looked like me but really only her face did. Her name was Hera, too. There was a woman she kept referring to as "Momma" except that woman had blonde hair, and I _think_ my mom had pink hair. I don't really remember what she looks like anymore. She was talking about giving a cookie with triangles and crystals painted on it to people as she was told, and was wondering why the people who received the cookies never came back.. And then after I saw that pendant thing the girl was standing before Adam, and he was telling her to inject her father with somesort of drug but she didn't want to. I think her father's name was Abioud Adrastos. What's going on?"

Dr. Hoffman sighed heavily. "This pendant was worn by members of Delphi," He said, holding it up. "And if what your saying is true, Hera, then I think your family used to be associated with them."

..And that was when my world stopped. "W-What? Are you sure?" But that woman was nothing like my mother! She was kind and caring. This woman was hateful and didn't like me very much and… And..- "D-Dr. Hoffman…" I breathed.

"Yes, what is it?" He asked.

"The mixture of a cold and warm feeling… It's here now. I feel it right before I see those visions!"

"What?-!" He whispered. "Hera, remember to-!" But I couldn't hear him anymore.

•°•

"_**It's time," Hera's mother says to her. "Are you ready to do the deed?"**_

"_**M-Momma.." Little Hera begins, twiddling her thumbs. "I don't really wanna do this…"**_

"_**WHAT?" Her mother says loudly. "Both Adam and I have told you to do so, why won't you do it?"**_

"_**T-This isn't right!" Hera cries. "I don't wanna inject Daddy with Pepti!" **_

"_**It's **_**Pempti.**_**" Her mother says, angrily. "Prototype **_**Pempti.**_** And you'll do it because we said!"**_

"_**No! The people I give the cookies to, they never come back! Daddy will only disappear, too, if I give him this medicine! I don't even know how to injept something! What If I hurt him while I try to injept it? I can't do it because I don't wanna hurt him and I don't wanna inject something!"**_

"_**Hera Kyle Preston, you'll do it because you were told!" The woman reaches out to grab her daughter by the collar of her dress, but misses as young Hera runs away from her.**_

"_**Dammit!" She whispers. "Well, I guess it's time to infect her with that new strain Adam was talking about.."**_

_**She walks in the dark until she stands before Adam. She bows her head. "It appears that my wretched daughter did resist, just as you thought she might."**_

"_**..Then I suppose it's time we give her a dose of my latest creation."**_

"_**What's it called?" She asks.**_

"_**It doesn't matter," Adam explains. "You'll only forget anyways. –Akumu. That is what it is called. It will bring with it Kyoki, Seigyo, and Hato."**_

"_**How will this help?" The woman asks.**_

"_**Because you'll be injecting Hera with the Akumu core. It will become active when she is first infected, but will become dormant overtime. The core can replicate the strains of all my other creations, and if all goes well, it will replicate Seigyo first. –**_**Control.**_** That will get her to obey you. New cores aren't very knowledgeable, so the replication will end before it really does any damage."**_

"_**Wow.." She whispers.**_

"_**Castalia," The woman looks up when Adam speaks her name. "You'll have to go into hiding as soon as the deed done. .. Or else there will be consequences." **_

_**Castalia nods and picks up the syringe on a table beside Adam. "I will do as you say!" She promises.**_

_**Hera creeps in a dark hallway next to a door where a comfortable room was supposed to be made for her father. **_

"_**Maybe I can get to him before Momma or Adam does," She whispers, about to reach for the doorknob when a hand grabs her wrist. "Momma!" She cries when she looks up.**_

"_**You horrible little girl.." Castalia whispers.**_

"_**Momma," Castalia raises her eyebrows and gives her daughter a "What-do-you-want-now" look. "You and Uncle Adam aren't very nice, are you? I'd rather be a docter like Daddy than make people disappear like you."**_

_**Castalia growls. "That's enough from you!" She stabs the syringe through her daughter's clothes and into an area in her back slightly below her shoulder blade and presses in on the plunger.**_

_**Hera's eyes zone out before she can even react, as if in a trance. Castalia slaps a new, loaded syringe in her hand. "GO." She points inside the door. **_

_**The door creaks as Hera opens it.**_

"_**Hera, is that you?" A masculine voices calls from inside. "Did you have a nightmare? It sure is hectic in this place, isn't it?"**_

_**There is no response. Light shines in from the doorway, it appears Castalia has left.**_

"_**It is you, Hera." Dr. Adrastos sits up. "Why aren't you answering?"**_

_**Both robotically and clumsily, Hera places one foot before the other.**_

"_**Hera, what's wrong? .. Why do you have a syringe? Hera, what are you- Noo!" **_

_**The doctor falls onto the floor.**_

"_**Hmm," Hera says, looking at the syringe. "Perhaps the prototype takes affect too early."**_

"_**Hera," She looks down at her father on the floor as he lifts his head. "Your blue eyes.. Their just like mine. I knew something was wrong the minute I saw them. I used to always know if something was wrong, just by looking at your eyes. They were..Emotionless." He coughs, some blood. "I hope that one day in the future your eyes will shine again.. Ugh." His head hits the ground, his eyes closed.**_

_**Hera blinks. "Huh..? Daddy? DADDY!" She gets down on her knees beside him."I'm sorry.. I promise I'll be a docter just like you!" She glances at the syringe in her hand and drops it, grabbing her wrist. "My arm feels weird… When I look at that needle and Daddy's blood.. Daddy, what does this mean? Can you hear me? ..Daddy?"**_

•_**°•**_

"I KILLED MY FATHERRRRRR!"

I opened my eyes and found an alarmed Leslie shaking me. I took my hands off my head and began to pant.

"What's wrong with her?" Leslie cried.

"I don't know, but I won't be surprised if just about all of Caduceus heard that blood curdling scream," Dr. Kasal noted.

"I wrote down everything she said from when she started reciting things from her vision," Dr. Hoffman began. "If this is Akumu, then Victor will need these notes to find out if there is a cure. There _has_ to be a reason why this is all happening now."

"..Will there be an Akumu outbreak?" Leslie asked.

"I don't know and I don't want to, someone get Derek in here, STAT."

"I heard a scream, what's wrong?"

I pointed at Derek and Angie. "YOU GET HERE FAST!" I was a bit loopy, tired, and hyper at the same time. "I'm only gonna puke in about T Minus 10 seconds." I coughed into my arm and saw red when I pulled back. "Ohhhh I have Pempti again.."

"That's not Pempti!" Derek cried. "You should have GUILT Antibodies!"

"Can a replicon even provide Antibodies?" Leslie asked. "Just to be sure, shouldn't we get the Nanomachine?"

"No," Angie spoke up. "If we don't inject the Nanomachine directly into the intended area, bad things could happen."

I rose my hand. "STUDENT HAS A QUESTION!"

Everyone quieted down and looked at me.

"Obviously it wasn't Pempti in the dirty syringe I was punctured with, it was the Nanomachine." I looked at everyone like they were stupid because I was still loopy and hyper and all that stuff from my little incident a few minutes ago. "I don't know how Leslie came to the conclusion that my GUILT was just replica, but if that's true and Angie was true about the Nanomachine, then I think that being freaking stabbed with that nasty needle in the wrong place caused the Nanomachine to lure the Akumu out of its dormant state and create a replican of the most recent version of the very strain of GUILT I killed my father with when I was infected with Akumu HENCE WHY…" I took a deep breathe. "Dr. Chase never really operated on a GUILT patient as the disease is gone. But I heard the other day that he was testing the Nanomachine to make sure it still worked!"

After an awkward moment of silence, Derek pointed to me. "..She's right." Everyone stared at him like he was crazy, even me. "I don't know how, but she's right. That would explain why I didn't notice anything weird during her operation, the Akumu was using that Pempti as a distraction."

Angie was next. "I think I have a few questions that Dr. Kimishima might be able to answer, I think we should speak with her on the phone."

I coughed into my hands this time. "OH GOD WHAT IS THIS."

Angie jumped back. "I-It looks kind of like the Pempti core! But.. It can't be!"

"FOOLS," I said. "IT IS PART OF THE AKUMU CORE." I answered my own question.

Next thing I know, Dr. Kasal starts barking out orders. "Derek, get ahold of Dr. Kimishima and find out what you can, Angie, get the core to Victor, and Leslie, make sure that Hera is stable and that she doesn't do anything stupid while we look for Dr. Chase!"

"BUT WHAT OF MY FRIENDS?" I spoke up as Leslie began dragging me and Angie scrapping blood and the core off my body. "SURELY THEY ARE WORRYING ABOUT ME? DID THEY NOT HEAR MY SCREAM?"

"They're fine, they're coloring in the lobby!" Leslie grabbed me from my underarms and tried to get me to walk, which didn't work. "Oh, Dr. Chase!" Leslie cried out as the doctor was running towards us. "Hera isn't stable!"

"LESLIE I'M FALL-" My feet gave out from under me and I was sitting on the floor with my nurse bent over trying to pick me back up.

"What's happened to her?" Dr. Chase asked as he wrapped an arm around me. "Damn, not a stretcher anywhere." He lifted me up into his arms.

"Oi anthropoi kai mou metaferoun!" I cried as they carried me off. _**(Translation: People and Carrying me!)**_

•°• Derek's Perspective •°•

"Dr. Derek Stiles from Caduceus USA speaking.. May I please speak to Naomi Kimishima?"

"This is Naomi speaking," A familiar voice answered.

"Sorry to bother you, Naomi, but I have to ask you a few questions. A life depends on it."

"If a life depends on it then what are you waiting for?"

"Right.. When you were part of Delphi did you ever hear about something called Akumu?"

"Akumu..? That was a private project, how did you hear about that?"

"We have a teenage girl here who we think is infected with it. I think she might be the sinner. Her name's Hera Preston."

"Her?" Naomi asked. "She was like a little slave around there. Yes, Akumu was designed specifically for her to be the sinner. Delphi had something against her father. I wouldn't be surprised if she's forgotten things, the host loses memories post to infection after the disease becomes dormant."

"Can you tell me how else the virus works?" I asked.

"Akumu translates to "Nightmare" in Japanese. A victim will fall into an involuntary slumber and be at the mercy of their own imagination. The three strains are Kyoki, Seigyo, and Hato. Insanity, Control, and Heartbreak. That's what the strains thrive for and produce. These strains are parasitic forms, like Savato. However, it's the Akumu core you have to be careful about."

"Why?" I asked.

"It can't be entirely extracted. Not all of it. It should remain dormant again after that."

"So… There's no real cure."

"Not until you find one, Derek."

"Alright, Naomi. Thank you."

"Derek, wait-"

I hung up the phone. There's no such thing as an incurable disease. I _will_ stop this!

•°•Hera's Perspective•°•

I had somewhat calmed down (not really) and was in a check-up room with Dr. Chase and Leslie. Like in those pediatric clinics, because I was sitting on a bed thing ontop of a paper cover.

..

I am not a child.

"All we have is scratch paper and a crayon, but I need you to get everything down, alright Leslie?" Dr. Chase asked as he washed his hands at the sink.

"Got it," Leslie said. She had lined paper that looked like it was torn out of a composition book and was holding a blue crayon. Wait a second.. THOSE ARE MINE.

"Hera, I'm going to check your vital signs and perform and other necessary procedures, is that alright?" Dr. Chase asked me and he put gloves on. "I know Leslie gave me permission."

"Nnnnn… Fine."

"In that case, I'll take your blood pressure." He opened up a cabinet and took out a Sphygmomanometer, which he wrapped securely around my arm and then began to squeeze.

"170," He finally said, and began taking it off.

The horrible sticky sound of _my_ crayon on paper burned into my mind as Leslie recorded the data down. My crayon would probably be demolished by the time this was all over.

He returned the Sphygmomanometer to the cabinet and exchanged it for a stethoscope. I stared at it for a few seconds, not saying a word. "Yeah, okay." And then lifted my shirt a little, and almost instantly, a chill went up my spine as the freezing device touched my skin.

"Hmm.." He said as he moved it around. "It seems your heart rate is slightly elevated."

Scribble scribble. Leslie writing. Scribble.

He listened again, and this time, listened to all of my abdomen and even my back. "Your breathing is off.." He noted. "Something doesn't sound right."

"Well," I began. "I kinda coughed blood up not too long ago but I haven't since then."

He sighed. "Leslie told me when you were playing at the bulletin board."

HA. Oh yeah. When they were bringing me here I grabbed onto it and nearly pulled it off the wall so we had to stop.

"..So apparently I wanted to be a doctor when I realized what happened to my dad," I said as Dr. Chase looked inside my ear with a light.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. He was a surgeon or something. Probably not as good as you guys. .. I _know_ he wasn't as good as you guys. I always thought I wanted to be a doctor starting from all the mindless video games I played. Actually, we mostly just had violent military-based ones that Yvonne and I would play after she and my step-dad came into the picture. My mom didn't want me playing any medicine ones, though. I didn't know why, they were just video games. Step-dad bought them for us and let us play them In secrecy. Yvonne and I were both behind in math but when I was six and she was eleven she would do the really boring stuff that included waiting, math, and sorting and I would do all the action-y stuff. I used to have a queasy-tingly feeling when I saw blood and that kind of stuff but video games sort of numbed it out for me."

"Hera, can you take your contacts out?"

"Oh, sure." I went over to the sink and pulled my contacts case out of my pocket, opened it, and then washed my hands. "These things are actually really tricky to get out. I've fallen asleep with them in a few times this week and didn't even notice." I titled my head back and pulled my eyelid back and slid my finger onto my eye, trying to chase the contact with my finger.

"Have you ever worn glasses or just the contacts?"

"Nope, always worn these. Hey, gotcha." I peeled the contact off and carefully put it in the solution in the case, and then began to get the other one. "I admit I have worn them out a few times but my mom always had back-ups sitting in our medicine closet. I don't even know if I require contacts to see or not and I don't care, I'd wear them any ways. They've been a part of me for too long." I lifted the other one up and put it in the solution on the otherside, and then faced Dr. Chase.

He shoned the light into each of my eyes. "Well, they are a nice shade of blue."

"Thanks, I'm guessing my dad liked them too."

He reached for a tongue depresser. "Say 'ah'"

"Ahhhh…"

"That's good, you can stop now." I closed my mouth. "Are you all calmed down now or are you just pretending?"

"Pretending slash trying to behave," I answered.

"Okay… I didn't notice anything except that previously mentioned and some blood in your mouth. But I think we already know what that's from. We haven't checked your vitals yet but we should do that. After that, all we can do is wait.."

•°•Lilac's Perspective•°•

So it was a slow night at Caduceus, huh? I sat in the lobby with Amanda and Dipwad here, pretending that I wasn't worried about my friend. We had Hera's box of crayons and blank paper from her notebook in which she kept Health and Fitness notes, and we were drawing.

Beast Boy was drawing something I didn't care about. Probably something boyish like a fighter jet or a tank. Amanda wasn't even looking, she was just smiling and laughing while scribbling on her page with her eyes closed. Supposedly oblivious to what was going on.

And me, well, I was just drawing different purple things in different shades of purple. Heart, squares, flowers, diamonds, etc. Suddenly, IT just stopped and put his crayon down.

"Hera might miss graduation.." He said randomly.

Damn, that's right. Next week was the last week of eighth grade for us. That included a dance. I remember Eric promising how he was going to take her.

Well, now you're dead, Eric.

Dead dead dead dead dead.

..Dead

That scream was really loud, and it sounded like Hera. But still..

I laid my head on the table and closed my eyes.

•°•

"Dammit, this woman's heart is beating irregularly!" I turned my hands into a fist and whacked her on the chest until her pulse returned. "She stabilized, someone get her in the ambulance and I'll drive!"

I got up and ran around to the driver door, opening it and climbed in where the engine was already warmed up. I tapped my fingers impatiently on the steering wheel as I wanted for them to hurry up. I kept looking back at them. "HURRY!" I shouted.

"Daaaaamn, Lilac. You do this every time, calm down!" my fellow EMT called as he got in the passenger door.

"NO." I grabbed his ear and jerked him towards me, and then let go and slammed my foot on the gas pedal.

"Lilac, Lilac slow down!"

"Woooohooo!" I called, exceeding the speed limit. "I see Caduceus now, baby!"

"Lilac, slow down, you're about to hit a!-" Everything went white as he suddenly grabbed the wheel and the sounds of tires burning surrounded me.

•°•

I woke up with a jolt. Seriously, what the hell was that?


	11. DREAM DOCTOR: Hidden Knowledge

~A few days after the incident, and I get to skip school~

I sat on the counter in Victor's lab and kicked my feet back and forth while I watched he and his men work.

"Did you really have to be in here?" He asked, annoyed.

"I'm sick, I want to see what you plan on doing about it."

"Ugh… You're starting to really piss me off. Haven't you been here long enough?"

"No, Doctor, no I have not. I don't think your men mind too badly either." I scooted out of the way as one of them went to open the drawer I was blocking and take out an empty vial. He took the goggles in my hands and put them back on my face where they belonged and walked back to his work station.

I blinked and then peered down at the math Victor was doing on paper.

"Fascinating, isn't it?"

I looked up at him. "What..?"

"The math you haven't seen before because you're in a lower math class."

"D-Doctor!" I cried.

He laughed a little, as if he enjoyed teasing me like that. That made me a bit miffed.

"You have to give me some credit, Dr. Niguel. I'm still smarter than a lot of the patients here." That was true. And I'm not talking about common sense here. I put a hand on his shoulder. "You should talk about the Krebs Cycle with me."

He slapped my hand away. "Stop it. Why do you bother me more than the other doctors? If you want to be a surgeon so badly, then go talk to Stiles about it."

I looked at him. "Isn't it obvious?"

"What are you talking abou-" His pupils narrowed. "You _do_ not.."

I grinned. "I _do_ too! Pretty much everyone on staff knows, too. Just ask your men."

"Knowing that its creepy having you this close to me," He put a hand on me. "Go away," And pushed, sliding me down the counter.

I got off the counter and walked over to him. "Doctor.." I said with fake tears in my eyes.

"Don't try that on me, it's not going to work." He said, nearing the bottom of the page with numbers.

I sniffed and made whimpering sounds.

"Tch.." He laid his head on the table for a moment and then lifted it back up. "Fine.."

I wiped my tears away. "Yaaaay.." And sat in his lap.

"Hnngh!" He glared at me, but, surprisingly, didn't try to move me.

I grabbed an image off the table. "Hey, is this mine?" It looked like an X-Ray.

"Hera, don't-" Victor warned me.

My heart stopped beating for a moment when I saw what was on there. I dropped it in my lap and started stuttering. "W-W-W-W-W-What is that?" I covered my mouth. "Some kind of Lung Bat?"

"It's what's inside of YOU." He told me.

"Doctor.." I said, turning to face him with my face red, and getting redder. "You _do_ promise you'll find a cure, won't you?"

He blushed a little. "Wha… YES! Why wouldn't I?" He snapped.

"Because you don't like me.." I said "Or anyone."

He looked around, and then leaned in close to me. "If I didn't like you, you wouldn't still be in here." He whispered, and surprisingly, not angrily.

So I tried to stay quiet for the rest of the time.

..But I stayed in his lap.

Until something strange happened.

I also took my goggles back off.

"Dr. Niguel, my chest hurts." I said, looking up at him.

He sighed, putting his tools down. "How bad?"

"Hmm.." I looked up with an index finger on my cheek while I thought. "Four and a half."

"Well, let me know if it gets any worse," He said, and then picked his tools back up.

"Hmm.." I cupped both my hands around the right side of my chest. I pulled them back and looked at them. "Ah ah ah ah!" I breathed, the sound of my breathing raising to near-panic.

"What's wrong now?" The doctor looked in my hands. "What the hell?" And we both fell onto the floor.

"Get this disgusting thing away from me its attacking my face!" I cried, holding my hands up to keep the flying bat-shaped creature away. From what I could tell, it didn't look like a REAL bat, obviously. But more like a pathogen-ified version of one. Like GUILT.

"Quick! Someone capture the Akumu core!" I heard someone scream, and then a bunch of the men rushed over to me.

The freaky Lung Bat landed on my chest where it had come from and suddenly vanished, obviously back into my chest.

I closed one of my eyes as blood from my face nearly dripped into it.

"Would someone get a nurse in to clean her up?" Victor asked. Oh no- more like demanded.

"Dr. Kasal said YOU'RE supposed to be in charge of me right now," I pouted, my lips pursed. "He's gonna get mad."

He facepalmed. "Ugh… Fine." He picked me up from under my arms and lifted me back up onto the counter. "Someone's underweight," He muttered. I shot him an angry glare, but he didn't notice as he was opening one of the upper cupboards for a First Aid-Kit.

He opened it up and put a pair of gloves on. "I'm too smart to be doing this.." He muttered, and ripped open a package of sterile gauze and a small supply of the antibiotic gel.

"Well, I appreciate that you are." I said, still a little miffed.

"Tch.." He wiped the blood off my eyelid and the rest oozing from that cut and then applied the gel to it, which quickly caused the wound to disappear. I could hear some of his men giggling like little school girls as they watched.

"Victoooor.." I whined.

"HEY!" He whirled around. "IF YOU DON'T GET BACK TO WORK I'LL KEEP YOU ALL BACK AN EXTRA TEN HOURS!" They rushed back to their work stations.

He turned back towards me and wiped the rest of the blood off, and then applied the gel. He threw the gauze and the gloves away and put the First Aid-Kit back.

"I almost have a serum prepared. You can stay quiet until then, _right_?" He asked me.

I nodded obediently and put my hands in my lap on the counter and watched.

..Until he put the goggles back on my face.

•°•

"Hera's getting Lovey-Dovey with Victor!" Lilac teased when I told her and Amanda what happened when they came to Caduceus after school.

"I was not!" I told her. "It doesn't matter if I like him that way, he's still way older than me. Isn't it sort of, Oh, I don't know, _illegal_ to get "Lovey-Dovey" with him?"

Before Lilac could answer, I could suddenly hear sirens.

"..Is that the Dipshit now?"

"What?" I asked.

"Mark had to go to the office near the end of school," Amanda answered. "He said it was an emergency."

"Yeah, and he was really moody!" Lilac added in. "Before that he was crying about something. An old flame or something like that."

"_**Kyoki, Seigyo, and Hato."**_

…"_**Seigyo, and Hato."**_

…_**.."And Hato."**_

Dr. Stiles told us that Dr. Kimishima said that Kyoki, Seigyo, and Hato were parasitic forms of Insanity, Control, and Heartbreak.

…

"Oh no." I whispered to myself.

"Leslie!" I ran down the hallways. "Leslie, Leslie!" I cried out for my nurse, but ended up running into Nurse Thompson instead.

"W-Where's Little Monster?" I cried.

"The boy they should brought in? They're testing his BMI readings.. Akumu victims supposedly have it rise when they fall into the "Slumber"..It's a miracle you haven't yet, too, Hera."

"Yeah, well, I probably will eventually so let's not get too used to it, huh? I really need to see him and any other patients that were brought in!" I tried running past her.

"You can't do that!" She grabbed onto my shoulders. "After testing he-!"

But I didn't hear the rest because I broke from her grasp and ran down the hall. I stopped when I saw green hair out of the corner of my eye and I looked into a room where my nurse had just finished hooking a brown haired boy up to a machine. "His BMI levels are certainly high.." She said, stepping back.

"Hey, Leslie!" I ran into the room.

She turned to me, and that's when I noticed that Little Monster wasn't awake. I stepped back and held my hands up to my mouth.

"It appears it already has him.." Leslie noted sadly. "I'll leave you alone to be with him until his scheduled operation…" She left, closing the door behind her.

"I'm sorry.." I whispered. "If only there was something I could do to help. Like…. Like.."

•°•

"_**Daddy, I know how you used to draw stars all the time. In the air? You told me that another star would appear and it would show you what was wrong with people. I can draw stars, too, Daddy, let me draw one for you.." Little Hera holds her hand out from her and tries drawing a star in the air.**_

"_**It doesn't look right!" She wails, sitting down on the floor next the corpse. "I'll draw one for you, Daddy, and one for me." She holds her other hand out and begins to draw a star with both hands. She can clearly see the stars forming in the air, glowing a bluish-green color, but she can't seem to stop drawing. She swears she can see herself in one star and her father in the other. Not having any control over what she is doing, when the stars are complete, she slides them together until they overlap. She holds the star in her hands and her eyes snap shut.**_

"_**Where am I..?" She asks. "Is this inside Daddy's head..? And why am I flying?" The little girl twist and turned as memories flew past her in bubbles. "Ooh!" She squealed, as an interesting one flew past her. "Since I'm going to be a docter like you, Daddy, why don't I play with this one..?" She flew over and grabbed onto one as it absorbed into her. "Why is there blood on these gloves..? What is that bloody tool in your hand, Daddy?" "A-OW!" The bubble is shocking me, Daddy! Its-!"**_

_**Hera wakes up and suddenly finds herself on the floor. She grabs her father's hand and feels the inside of his wrist. "You have no pulse.."**_

•_**°•**_

I gasped. Do I have my father's surgical skills at my fingertips..?

"Maybe, Little Monster, If I'm careful not to _steal_ any of your memories, I can see what you remember prior to infection with Akumu.."

I held both my hands infront of me, and prepared to draw the stars that greatly resembled what I was taught to identify as the Healing Touch. Could this possibly be another form of the Greek gift? My fingers glided across the air. The Healing Touch smells like herbal leaves… I took hold of the stars. One had me on it and the other had Little Monster. I slid them both together and held the lone star in my hands and closed my eyes.

•°•

"_Little Monster? Little Monster, where are you?" I cried. _

"_I'm here.." Okay, now I could hear literal crying. As if it we were on stage, a light shone down in this black world I was in and I saw my friend huddled on the ground. I ran over to him. "What's happened to you?" Shouldn't I be in his memories..?_

"_Eia.." He cried, hugging a picture. I ripped it out of his hands to look at it. "You had a girlfriend?" In the picture was a slightly younger Little Monster and a girl with big, black teased hair dressed in black and neon clothes with a Hello Kitty necklace and Snakebite piercings. _

"_Eia… Why did you have to break up with me?" He cried softly. Uhh I'm not really good with comforting people like this, that was Amanda's job._

"_I think I can help you get over Eia…" I said._

"_Get over Eia?" He wailed, and tore the picture from my grasp. "Why? I love her.."_

"_But.. Um. Look how much pain you are in. Don't you want to feel better again?"_

"_I guess.." He sniffed. "Okay, Hera. I'll let you help me.."_

"_Great." I stood up and jerked my hands downward, and O.R. suddenly forming in this bizarre realm._

"_How am I in a bluish-green dress..?" He asked as I washed my hands at the sink and put gloves on. I turned around._

"_DO NOT.. Pull at your sterile gown.." I told him, sighing.I pointed to the Operating Table. "Get on, now."_

_He obeyed. _

"_Don't Touch Me, I'm Sterile!…" I paused. "Little Monster, do you hear Amanda's voice?"_

_He rolled his eyes so he could look at me upside down. "Yeah. Why?"_

_I growled. "I have a bad feeling if she tries moving my body when I'm like this.." I drew another star in the air, this time with Amanda on it, and slid it to where if I were still at Caduceus, it would overlap with the stars already present._

_Amanda suddenly fell onto the floor in the O.R. "What the? Why am I in scrubs? Hera, why are you in scrubs? Why is Little Monster-?" _

"_Calm down, Amanda.. I think I brought you into Little Monster's dream.. He's dreaming, because of the Akumu.."_

_Tears began to form in my friend's eyes. "I don't get it.."_

"_Shh shh.. Amanda don't cry you'll get Little Monster going.."_

"_Eiiiiaaaa.." I heard from the operating table._

"_Dammit, Amanda, look what you did!"_

"_Shh, Shh.." She walked over to him and stroked his hair. "It's going to be okay.." She cooed. _

"_Amanda," She turned and looked to me. "Come wash your hands so we can get started, and then administer the Anesthesia.." _

_She nodded. "Mmhmm!" And ran over to me. I stepped out of the way so she wouldn't push me trying to get to the sink. She turned the water on and rinsed her hands under it with an herbal soap, and then held her hands under an automatic paper towel dispenser. She dried her hands and used the towels to turn the faucet off before throwing them away and putting gloves on._

"_Administer the Anesthesia and we can get ready to extract this thing from his body.." _

_She took the mask and placed it on his face. "Sweet dreams, Little Monster…" His eyes quickly closed._

"_Alright.." I said, walking over to his unconscious body. Dreams within a dream.. "Hand me the antibiotic gel, Amanda."_

"_Yes, doctor.." Her eyes widened. "Did I just call you.."_

_I nodded. "You did. Hurry up with that gel."_

_She nodded, blushing a little, and handed it to me._

_I unscrewed the lid and dipped my finger into it, taking a generous amount and disinfecting the area. "Scalpel," Amanda took the gel from me and handed me the scalpel. I looked into it and swore I saw Leslie talking to someone in it from the glare. Ignoring that, I made a quick and deep incision, having no need to go slow. My father was quick at these things, you see._

"_W-What is that?" Amanda cried when the operation field became his heart._

_A flat, pinkish, heart-shaped creature with a crack going down the center walked around on tiny legs. It had antennae with eyes on it and pinchers._

"_The entire operation field is inflamed," I noted. "The Hato must be biting him. Nurse, get me a syringe of the Anti-Inflammatory medication." _

_Amanda blushed. "Did you just call me-?" She sighed. "Yes, Hera.." She loaded a syringe and I injected it into area after area._

"_I-It's holding onto a larger chunk of the heart! It's going to rip it out!" Amanda cried._

_I looked around, unsure of what to do, as not an idea came to mind. _

"_Hera!" Amanda snapped. "You have to be more careful!" She sighed. "I'll get a synthetic membrane, but please be careful!" _

_I took it off the tray with the forceps and laid it on the gaping hole in his chest, and quickly covered it with gel and rubbed it with my hand before it peeled off due to bleeding. I glanced at the nasty creature who had done this to my friend as it finished munching on the flesh it had torn off._

"_Doctor! It's at it again!" Amanda informed me as it grabbed hold of more flesh._

"_Hand me the laser," I commanded._

_She did so, and I began burning the back of the Hato parasite. _

"_It's shell's fallen off!" Amanda cried. "Quick, while it's vulnerable!" She handed me the scalpel and I swiped at its bare back, leaving a laceration. _

"_The shell is growing back!" I quickly removed the pieces of the first shell with the forceps, and treated more inflammations as it bit down._

"_It's biting another large area!" I took the laser as Amanda handed it to me and I burned the shell off once more, slashing it. "BMI reading levels decreasing.." Amanda noted. I quickly removed the shell with the forceps._

"_Syringe, and with the Anti-Inflammatory," Amanda did as I said and I injected it into the inflamed areas. _

"_Doctor! The shell has grown back, the Hato is biting again!" _

"_Laser!" I commanded, and quickly burned the shell off once more and slashed it with the scalpel. I picked up and removed the remains of the shell and treated the inflammations as the shell grew back._

_The Hato suddenly caused a zig-zag laceration going half-way down Little Monster's heart, imitating the one on its shell._

"_You can't save him.." I heard a voice taunt us from behind me._

"_Amanda.. Whatever you do, don't look at Castalia.." I warned her. _

"_You're skills are even rustier than your father's were, you can't save anyone!"_

_Amanda's eyes suddenly got angry, she suddenly looked up at my mother. From the glare of my tools, I could see that she thrust her hands downward._

_Amanda refocused on the operation. "He's going into cardiac arrest!"_

"_Dammit!" I whispered. "I'm going to massage the heart!"_

_I placed my hands on the organs, trying to stay in rhythm and I moved my hands up and down._

"_We have a pulse!" Amanda declared. _

_I noticed that a lot of blood oozed from the wound the Hato caused. "Drain," I said, holding my hand out. _

_She placed it in my hand and I quickly drained the blood._

"_Doctor! The Hato is trying to fly away!"_

_I quickly pulled the wound over with the forceps and then sutured the giant laceration and took the laser as she handed it to me and burned the wings off. _

_It tumbled back onto the heart and I took this time to burn the shell off, and then gave it a final slash with the scalpel._

"_BMI readings are back to their normal level! Please treat the remaining wounds and close him up.." _

_She handed me a syringe of the Anti-Inflammatory and I treated the remaining wounds._

"_Oh my gosh.. Little Monster.. You're going to make it.." Tears spilled down her face as I sutured the operation field and disinfected the area, pulling the bandage over. _

"_Daddy, I hope you're proud of me.."_

"_Good work, doctor," She sniffed._

"_Let's get back to Caduceus, now," I said. "Who knows what will happen if we stay now that the Akumu is gone.." _

_I looked down into my hands and saw the overlapping stars. I pulled them apart in a fan and pulled them each out, one by one, and set them on the ground and they spun on their tips. _

•°•

I opened my eyes. I saw Amanda sitting on the floor beside me, where I stood. Little Monster opened his eyes first. He pointed at me. "WIZARD! WIIIZARD!"

"H-Hera!" Leslie cried. "Y-You cured him! His BMI readings are back at their normal level.. I walked in here, and the three of you were glowing and smelled like mint and other herbs.."

Amanda raised her hand when she opened her eyes. "Uh, yeah, I noticed that, too. And then Hera dragged me into that mess."

"You had the skills of a nurse in there, Amanda. How…?" I asked.

"Probably because you had me in that freaky O.R. ..I still have that knowledge, you know.."

Little Monster lifted his shirt up. "Heeey, I even have a surgical scar! Neat."

"Ohh.." Leslie fainted.

"Les-!" I covered my mouth.

Amanda eyed me. "What's wrong..?"

I got up and ran over to the trash can in the room, and proceeded to puke. That sort of took a serious toll on my body.

•°•

And that was how I found myself in Victor's lab again.

"What did it look like?" He asked, and put the goggles back on my face.

"Exactly how you drew it," I pointed to the sketch he did after I described it to him the first time. "..And kind of pinkish with darker spots on the shell."

"And it "bit" the surface of the organ and caused a zig-zag shaped laceration?"

"Um, yeah, pretty much. A lot of the operation field was inflamed."

"..I still don't see how you were able to operate on him like that."

I crossed my arms. "I _told_ you. I have the Soul Surgeon's knowledge at my fingertips!" Yes. My father was known as the "Soul Surgeon" by his colleagues. I learned that from the memory. Memories. Dr. Chase called me the "Dream Doctor" and now a few other people are, too. If Dr. Adrastos had the Healing Touch and the ability to reach into people's souls, could I possibly have inherited that in the form of dreams? ..Does the Healing Touch have a higher level of healing than what Dr. Stiles knows?"


	12. The Price To Pay

"Dr. Niguel," I said as he was bringing me back to Leslie so we could go home.

"What?" He asked, annoyed, and looked down at me.

"I think I strained myself too hard today," I said, looking up at him.

He stopped, and turned to me suspiciously. "Why…?"

..And that was when I puked on him.

"DAMMIT! DISGUSTING! ALL OVER MY UNIFORM!" He said in disgust and then took his shirt off.

I stared at him, not saying a word, completely emotionless.

"What. Are. You. Looking at?" He growled.

"..You," I replied. "It's kind of weird when a doctor takes his shirt off in the middle of a hospital."

"Hera.. You Have Three Seconds." He threw his uniform on the ground.

I turned and bolted around the corner, and I could hear Victor running after me almost instantly. He quickly caught up to me and he lifted me up around my stomach and I giggled. Before he could beat me to a bloody pulp, though, I heard a familiar voice.

"Hera's getting Lovey-Dovey with Victor!"

He dropped me almost instantly and my mouth hit the floor. I hope I didn't chip a tooth because it's been awhile since I went to the dentist..

"That's _disgusting.._" He said.

Lilac shrugged. "Well, atleast you stopped doing that before Leslie showed up because I think she would have been pretty pissed."

"She would not!" I snapped. "Look, she's there now!"

Leslie approached us. "How are you doing, Hera?" She looked up at shirtless Victor. "Oh… D-Dr. Niguel..?"

"Hera vomited on me." He said, crossing his arms.

Leslie glanced back at me.

I shrugged. "This is a hospital. The doctor shouldn't be so surprised."

"Alright, Hera.. Come with me." Leslie gave me her hand and helped me up.

"Wait," Victor suddenly said. "Leslie, I need to talk to you."

"…Oh?" She moved her hand away from mine and walked off with him. I glanced at Lilac as she shot a hand out to me, which I grabbed, standing up. We stood just behind the corner, listening to the conversation.

"..About that adoptive "daughter" of yours…"

"Um.. Yeah?" She cocked her head a little to the side, wondering where he was going with this.

"That _thing_ in her body.. There's more to it than what meets the human eye."

"..I don't understand, Doctor."

"Ugh. I can't believe I'm saying this.. But.. Soul."

"Soul?"

"…I believe that her soul might be mixed in with that Lung Bat.."

"Wait, WHAT?" Leslie jumped.

"Yeah, the Healing Touch, too. All of that.. Weird Spirtual stuff. Adam designed a weird pathogen with strange goals. My point is, if she over uses the Healing Touch, the Core might get aggravated due to the stress and physical damage.."

Leslie looked sad. "And if we try removing the Core.."

"..That's right. She'd die."

I couldn't stand anymore. I covered my mouth in shock.

"..Damn." Lilac whispered.

"Hera," I jumped and looked up to see Leslie standing infront of us. "Change of plans.. We're staying at the hospital for a while longer.."

"Okay.." This didn't change my mood at all.

She took my hand and lead me back to my hospital room.

I undid my braids and puts the scrunchies on my wrist as she pulled the covers up and sat beside me in a chair.

"..Hey, Lezzels?"

"Hmm?"

"..Why did you adopt me?"

She looked taken aback by the question, and then chuckled. "Do you remember when I would babysit you when you were eight?"

"Yeah, yeah." I nodded.

"I wasn't about to let you get away that easily," She grinned. "I took care of you once and I can take care of you again."

I giggled. "Yeah, I know.."

"Now go to sleep," She put a hand on the side of my cheek. "It's getting late…" She stood and walked over to the door, turning the lights off, and walked out to return to duty.

I crawled deeper under the covers and closed my eyes, falling asleep.


	13. The Mistress

My name is Madevery. I have dark brown hair that goes just past my shoulders and a red hair bow. My eyes are brown, too. My shirt is blue with green spots and I wear a denim skirt. On my feet are periwinkle boots with pink chunks much like that of Hera Preston's hair. What? How do I know who she is?

Well, I'm the Queen of The Dream Realm, of course! I'm three hundred years but I died at age eighteen. Everyone comes on my turf when they sleep. But I always thought it was so lonely.. No excitement.. That's why I decided to come here and be the queen when I died. Mistress Madevery. I like stories and I like games. When people dream, they are always broadcasted to "Mistress Madevery's Mansion". That's Madevery Manor. So on my throne I might pick and choose which dreams to watch and which stories to enjoy.

..But sometimes sitting back is just so boring, I'd rather intervene. And I can! Back in that world on Earth I like to add all kinds of plot twists so I may enjoy such a story.

Now, descendants of Asclepius, users of the Healing Touch, they can _all_ use the Second Mode of the Healing Touch, just very few know about it. They come here. Even Soul Surgeon Abioud Adrastos has ventured here and met me before.

..But his daughter is one of my favorite marionettes. One of my favorite play things to pick on and throw events into her life. It just adds so much flavor to the story, doesn't it?

But of course she isn't the only one I do this to, oh no. Infact… Would you mind if I picked on you?

/

He raised me up high in our Pas De Deux, setting me back down on my toes as I spun in a circle, his blonde locks whipping past me.

"Hera.." He said softly, holding his hand out.

I looked into his blue eyes and nodded, reaching my hand out. Slowly, slowly, slowly..

When I suddenly landed on my knees in a black room infront of a woman on a throne. "A-Ah!" I squealed.

She smiled at me and chuckled, placing her teacup back on her saucer, setting it on the arm rest of her throne.

"That was a very fine dance you were doing," She told me. "Too bad it was only a dream."

"Wha.. So I wasn't really dancing ballet with Shortstop just now?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I like ballet. I like shows, too."

"..Where am I?" I asked her.

"You mean you don't recognize it?" She held her hand out and looked behind her. "This is the Dream Realm.. You're in Madevery Manor.. I am Mistress Madevery. I am queen around here."

"You're queen of the Dream Realm..?"

She nodded.

"Hey, Mistress Madevery. What are you drinking?"

"It's hot apple cider." She cocked her head slightly, smiling. "..Would you like some?"

"Um.. Uh huh." I nodded.

She held her hand out to me as I stood, pulling me onto her lap, feet and all. She held the cup up to my lips and I drank in the rich, sweet, liquid.

"Y'know.. It's kinda disappointing.." I began.

"How's that?" She smiled softly.

"I mean I kinda wished I was dancing with my friend just now."

"Do you love him?" She asked me.

"W-What?! N-No way..! Atleast I don't think so."

"Dancing with someone is a good way to bond with them," She told me.

"A-Ah…" I began blushing.

•°•Castalia's Perspective•°•

I glanced at the girl beside me inside our black Hyundai as I parked in an alley behind a neighborhood. It was a good neighborhood…

The silvery-white hair of the girl was up in a ponytail with a maroon scrunchie, the purple, green, and yellow streaks that represent the V, P, and H type Tetartis stretching from her bangs to the tied back hair.

A little lower down are her white irises. Ah, those bored and lonely eyes. Karl said she was blind but it seems she can see.. Is there some medical advantage to being a virus? I bet if she was all human, she'd be blind.

Ah yes, her mask. All of her clothing was a black, plastic-like material. Including her mask, which covers her mouth and nose and even her chin.

Around her neck was a vial with rainbows gooshing everywhere. Why? Because inside there was each individual Tetarti serum all sloshed together. Karl mentioned something about her being bound to wear it for all eternity. So she could be killed. His own creation.

Her shirt. It kinda pissed me off. The girl's sixteen and you can see so much of her cleavage! She has long sleeves that go past her hands and end in the shape of a Tetarti's hand. Imagine Vocaloid sleeves with a different shape at the end. The other part of her shirt that pisses me off? It cuts off at a slanted angle, revealing her navel.

That skirt. It's so short. But stays in place surprisingly well thanks to the material. Thank god..

Her boots go up to her thighs and have a heel.

This female also carries a whip, one that leaves lacerations with a touch of toxins.

Sometimes I feel like I'm partnered with a smoker when I'm around her. Toxic gas wafts around her, although it's only mildly toxic. So mildly toxic that the only thing it could hurt would be a few bugs and maybe a small rodent like a hamster.

This.. Is Toxica Tetarti, my partner.

"..So what's up with your name?" I asked her, staring out the windshield. Toxica? Karl comes up with some pretty freaky names.

"…..I don't know…" She responded.

"Well um.. What do you think of Karl? Pretty freaky, huh?"

"Should we really be talking about our boss that way?" She asked, turning to me.

"Don't you think it's strange that he had us infect people with the _final_ strain of Akumu before the first? And also, he starts creating walking viruses and starts with one that ranks inbetween the first and final strains?"

"..Well that does seem somewhat abnormal."

"..Karl's freaky."

"He's fifteen, he can be as weird as he likes."

So now she gets a personality.

"You're weird, too."

Her eyes narrowed angrily. "Not as weird as you. Karl told me what you did in the past."

I waved her off and looked out my window. "I could care less."

"…Well I'll still be loyal to you. Even if you don't care and even if you're weird."

"Huh?" I turned to her.

"I'm a Tetarti. I'm loyal to those around me. And if you're assigned to me as my partner, then I'll stay loyal to you."

I chuckled. "You wanna get a soda or something?"

"Cherry.. Please.."


	14. LOST: Emergency

•°•Hera's Perspective•°•

"Wow, you're really lucky your ass was saved because I totally wouldn't have alerted the doctors if-"

"LILAC!" Amanda and I shouted at our blonde friend as she was giving Little Monster a "pep" talk as he'd still be in the hospital for a few more days after the Hato incident.

"Well how stupid do you have to be to get infected with something that nasty and not even suspect it?!" She defended herself.

I stood up. "I gotta go.. I have to get some tests done, soon… You know.." I looked over at Lilac.

"Uh… Yeah!" She nodded, remembering what she and I had overhead the other day about the.. Beast in my body.

"Bye," Little Monster said while Amanda smiled and waved. Lilac just.. Nodded.

As I stepped out into the hallway, I bumped into.. Him. And by him I mean either Shortstop/Jack. Although his real name was "Jacques Swanson" according to Little Monster. So anyways he had blonde hair that went to his shoulders, a silvery construction worker's hat, a black choker, a royal blue v-neck with longer sleeves, black denim pants, black uggboots, a gun holster and untrusting royal blue eyes..

"I-I'm sorry!" I said shyly as I blushed.

"Watch where you're going, moron." He growled as he glared directly at me.

"S-So are you here to see-" I tried to change the subject.. Until he cut me off.

"I was.. But now I need to talk to you." The tone he used just spelt trouble.

"Okay… What Did you want to talk abou- EEP!" I squealed as he roughly grabbed onto the front of my shirt and shoved me up against the wall, pinning me there and hurting my shoulders. I blushed violently. "W-What are you doing?!"

He leaned in close to me. "Keep your damn voice down."

I let out a whimper and troubled. "Why do you need to talk to me like this?" I asked more quietly.

"Stay away from my friends and I." The blonde growled.

"Y-You stay away!"

He shoved me harder into the wall.

"You're some kind of witch, aren't you? Little Monster told me everything after his operation."

"A-A witch?! I'm not a witch!" I cried.

"Stay away!" He repeated. With a look in his eyes this time. A look that I can only describe as scary. All the adjectives in the world, and I choose scary. Yep. "I don't need some dangerous freak around stirring up trouble with my friends."

I cringed as he let go of me and stalked off angrily. I trembled, unsure of what to do.

•°•Lilac's Perspective•°•

"..I kinda feel like going home." I said to Amanda, still in Idiot Grill (Little Monster)'s room.

"Why, Lilac?" She asked me with concern.

I just shrugged. "I guess I just wanna see Ma Pere." 'Ma Pere" being French for "My father". I know French. My family is French, and I was originally born in Paris.. Buuut that was just bad timing, I guess.. My dads (Yes, two dads, homosexual couple here) never lived in France. ..So I guess their surrogate went on vacation or somethin'.. I think that's what my dads said, I wasn't really paying attention then. We did live in Canada for awhile, though. In around fourth grade my dads and I moved to Angeles Bay. I remember being a new student to the Elementary School in early Spring and getting Amanda Cherrystone assigned as my buddy to show me around. And she was good at it, too. The two of us became friends fast. It wasn't until a week or two later that I really got to know Hera, which is weird because she and Amanda were really good friends.

Oh, and one of my dads thought it would be a genius idea to make my middle name "Florida". Lilac Florida Fyals.

Anyways…

"Um, Lilac?" Amanda started.

"Hmm?"  
>"..You were staring off into space for a really long time there.." The Idiot Grill finished.<p>

"Shut yo face," I stood up. "I'm prettier than you." I said to him as I turned and stepped out of the room.

"I'm a guy!" He called after.  
>Haha not like I care.<br>..So I'd really like to be a Paramedic. Hopefully the Caduceus paramedics will have better uniforms by then. Seriously. I don't even want to go into detail about them now.  
>I've heard about this chick called Maria Torres who's supposed to be this really kick-ass EMT on the other side of the country from me.<p>

I want to meet her.

I also want to drive an ambulance again but I'm fairly sure that won't ever happen again…Unless I get a special license or something in the future to drive one.

So anyways I stepped outside of Caduceus and pulled my iPod out of out of my purse as soon as I was away from the building and started listening to it a few blocks down the side walk. The song was Alejandro by Lady Gaga because I like that song and I don't give a damn what you say, I'm sexier than you.  
>I hummed to the tune a little and mostly just stared at the ground as I walked.<p>

I kicked a few rocks and pinecones that were on the sidewalk and mostly just walked by scuffing my feet along and not really lifting them up. The last thing I kicked was a cheap, plastic waterbottle with the wrapper torn off and rocks, dirt, and dandelions mixed in with the water, turning it into a nasty brown color. What's wrong with people these days?

Actually.. That's something I would do, too. I gotta keep that in mind. I opened up the Sticky Note app on my Ipod so I could make a note to do that with the next bottle water I buy, while still kicking the bottle on the ground as I walked, when I suddenly looked up and something caught my attention.

…Some guy laying face down in his lawn.

Last time I checked, a guy laying face down in his lawn wasn't exactly a good thing. I took my earbuds out and put my iPod away.  
>First rule of CPR, look around for any hidden danger.<br>…YEP EVERYTHING CHECKED OUT OKAY.  
>So I ran over to this guy. He looked about seventeen, had white hair, was really tall and what stood out about him the most was that he had a blinfold. Uh.. KAY THEN.<p>

"Excuse me? My name is Lilac Fyals and I'm CPR certified!" I shouted to him. "..Dude?" I shook his shoulder. No response. I sighed and rolled him over on his back as a unit. I leaned down next to his chest to listen for a heartbeat. His heart was beating, alright. I just couldn't hear him breathe. I pulled my head up and looked to see if his chest and rising and falling. It wasn't. "Dammit.." I tilted his chin back and pinched his nose, and made a seal over his mouth with my own and started giving him rescue breaths.  
>In the middle of the second breath, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and saw that the guy was shooting his hand out towards me. And a little bit too close to my chest. ..Kay.<p>

I scooted back. "Welcome back, dude."

"..Thanks." He smirked sitting up. Wow, he had a really deep voice… And how the hell is he stable already?  
>"..You can go now." He told me.<p>

"Uh, no." I said. "I kinda don't wanna get charged with Abandonment. Speaking of which, I probably should have called 911 a long time ago.. I took my Sidekick out and dialed.

He kinda just looked away the whole time I was on the phone. Actually, I could tell. Blindfold and all.  
>"EMS will be here shortly," I told him as I hung up the phone. After being instructed by the operator, obviously. I'm not stupid.<p>

After awhile of staring at this guy I couldn't take it anymore. "..Do I know you?" I finally asked him.

He grinned. "I'm Jerome Martin, younger brother of Martin."  
>...Oh.<br>Dr. Martin was a chick with ebony hair and skin as white as snow. She was a general surgeon at Caduceus (she was also in Forensics).

"..What the hell is up with that blindfold, kid?" Seriously.

"..Oh, that. I'm kind of rather.. Almost virtually blind."

Seems legit.  
>II could hear the sirens of an ambulance and as I could see it driving up next to us I picked my crap up. "Welp, bye, Jerome. Hope you don't die." And with that, I left.<p>

•°•Shortstop's Perspective•°•

Why should I waste my time with stupid trifles like telling you about myself? Doesn't the little witch take up most of the spotlight anyways? What do you need me to talk for? Amanda doesn't get a whole lot of attention so why not- Nevermind, you're probably too stupid to understand what I'm trying to say anyways. Carry on.

"...Your seventeen-year-old brother just learned where shit came from last week?" Little Monster asked me, bewildered. My idiot brother, Reginald (But he hates that, so he goes by Reggie), who was the manager at the local Burger King, had, I shit you not, (no pun intended) just learned where shit came from last week.

"That's what I just said." I rolled my eyes.

"Damn.. So you and your mom are the only two in your intermediate family with Crohn's?"

"We would be if she were still alive.." I growled. My mother was named Aimee K. Swanson. She had ebony, curly hair, fair skin, and big, beautiful royal blue eyes. She died when I was six.  
>..No, I refuse to tell you why or how.<p>

"Ahh.. Right. Sorry." He put his hand behind his head. "I didn't mean to sound.. Y'know.. Insensitive."

"...Whatever." I growled as I headed out and rudely left my friend without another word. I kept my arms down by my sides as I walked..

Until a certain despicable Candy Striper bumped into me, that is..

"Watch where you're going, you walking candy cane!" I hissed.

"I-I was told by Nurse Thompson to check on Little Monster!" She squealed, bending her arms and holding them infront of her face to defend herself as I tackled her. She shrieked as I roughly forced my arms under her to keep her down, already ontop of her from when I tackled her.

"Stop it, stop it! Shortstop, you're hurting me!" She wailed as she squirmed underneath me.

I held my ground. "No!"

"A-AHH!"

I raised a fist high above my head, about to bring it crashing down on her when I heard.. Devious laughing.

Oh god..

It can't be that devious laughing..

Not..

Madevery's?

Not the ghost I was all too familiar with..  
>Fuck..<p>

After that, everything went black.

•°•Hera's Perspective•°•

I remember everything going black and not remembering how... I also remember waking up to a surprise after that.. Not sure if I should be disgusted or otherwise when I was curled up next to Shortstop... In a cage. He was still asleep and dare I say he looked adorable.. What am I thinking?! He just tried to beat me up. I touched and winced at one of the bruises on my shoulder from when he had shoved me into the wall earlier today.

Back to more important matters..

I shot up and began shaking the bars on the cage. "HEY WHO PUT THIS UP HERE I WANNA GET OUT!" When did we get in a dungeon..?

I gasped quietly as I felt a hand grip my shoulder roughly.. And begin to squeeze it... Where the bruise was. "A-AAAH Shortstop stop it, stop it you already gave me a bruise there it hurts!" I probably shouldn't of been so loud or I wouldn't of woken him up..

"YOU...! DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!" He grabbed me and pulled me so close to his face that our noses were touching.

I blushed violently. "No, no I don't!"

"Because of YOU Madevery is going to kill us or torture us to death!"

…  
>He knows, Madevery, too?<p>

"HOW IS IT MY FAULT WE GOT HERE?!" I screamed in his face. "I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"  
>He obviously didn't like how I screamed in his face because he lunged at me next.<p>

I ran to the far side of the cage and tried climbing up the side. "HE'S TRYING TO KILL ME!" I cried out as he sprung after me and grabbed onto my waist, weighing me down. "HEEEEEEELP! HE'S HURTING ME AND BEING TOO ROUGH!"

"SHUT UP!" He pulled me off the side and pinned me down on the ground, with a hand holding down each of my wrists and his knees on my thighs.

I blushed violently. "GET OFF GET OFF!" He didn't listen, infact, he was closing in and about to bite my neck.. NO NOT IN A SEXUAL WAY THAT'S DISGUSTING HE'S NASTY.

"MADEVERY! MADEVERY HELP ME!"

Somehow, to my luck, woman appeared before us. "..That's enough Jacques." She smirked.  
>"..Relative or not, I'm the one that tortures around here."<p>

..Relative? Torture? WHAAAAAAT?!"

"Y-YOU'RE RELATED TO HER WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME FIVE MINUTES AGO SHE'S SO NICE WHY WOULD SHE TORTURE-"

Madevery snapped her fingers as a roll of aqua duct tape wrapped its tape around my mouth.

Shortstop climbed off of me and glared at Madevery through the bars. "You Sadistic Witch..! I'll never be like you!" He reached through the bars at her, and yet she looked unintimidated and out of reach.

"..You're torturing Hera, aren't you?" The brunette woman smirked. "I'll tell you now that she's my marionette and no one else's."

H-Her marionette..? But she was so nice to me the last time I saw her..

"..I may have been beating her up but I wasn't using dirty Ghost Tricks!" He hissed.

The duct tape vanished off my lips as I could speak again. "I wanna go home.." I whimpered.

"I'm afraid you won't be anytime soon.." Madevery cooed. "..Now go to sleep. Tomorrow will be much worse." And with that, she walked off.

"COME BACK HERE MADEVERY!" Shortstop yelled. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

I curled up on the floor. "...If you're related to her do you have magic powers, too?" I said quietly.

"MADEVERY YOU BITCH-" He turned and looked at me. "..What the hell did you just ask me?"

"..I asked if you have powers, too, you're related to her."

"..You don't know anything, do you? Of course I don't. If you didn't know already, the Dream Realm, where we are right now, bends according to the user's imagination, and Madevery has more power than any visitor or citizen here and that's only because she's taken a spot as queen."

"..So we can just.. Wish the cage away?" I asked.

"Do you really think Madevery's that stupid? She probably put some kind of block on the inside of the cage just to prevent that from happening."

"...I'm scared."

"I don't give a damn." He growled and sat on the ground on the far side of the cage.

"...When you die are you gonna be king?"

"Hell. No." He rolled over, his back to me. "Just because I'm related to her doesn't make me any different from anyone else. Nor does it change who I am."

"..What's she going to do to us tomorrow?"

"You don't want to know. Shut up and go to sleep."

"A-Alright.." I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep in a dream within a dream.


	15. Birchwood

•°•Hera's Perspective•°•

The next morning.. There was another surprise in store for me.

I let out a quiet "meep" as I started waking up.. Something wasn't right, I couldn't feel the smooth, hard floor of the cage under me.. It was soft and plush.. Like fabric.. And flesh? I opened my eyes and found to my surprise, myself ontop of Shortstop and my face resting on the exposed skin of his v-neck shirt. I bit back a gasp. If he woke up and saw us like this he'd be furious.. I don't even know how we got like this and I don't want to. He was still asleep.. That was.. Until a certain Lung Bat woke up and rammed into my lung suddenly.

I let out a loud gasp of pain as the blonde's eyes flew up and immediately glared at me.. He also then took a moment to analyze the situation he and I were in..

He glared in disgust and wrapped his arms around me roughly, and then proceeded to flip us over as one unit so that he was ontop.

I let out a shriek of discomfort as my bruised shoulders hit the concrete that was the floor of the cage.

"That's enough, Jacques."

I cried out in surprised. When did Madevery get there? Anyways Shortstop stayed where he was... On top of me.

A large, floating, upside teacup appeared behind the ghost woman as she sat on it. "For your torture.. I'll be sending the two of you for a new sub-realm I've recently created in the Dream Realm.." She smirked devilishly. "..I need guinea pigs to test it out for me."

"I'm not a guinea pig, I'm a human being!" I wailed.

Shortstop slapped a hand over my mouth. "We don't want to be your guinea pigs." He hissed at the brunette woman with hate.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice." She smirked. "In a few moments I'll be sending the two of you to the town Birchwood within whether you like it or not."

"Wait-"  
>Madevery opened the door of the cage and threw a snowglobe at us that shattered on impact. Everything went black again after that but it couldn't have been for more than five minutes.<p>

I groaned and opened my eyes. Shortstop and I were in a pile of eachother on the wooden floor of a bedroom of a house.. In what must of been Birchwood Town.

The blonde roughly shoved me off. "Way to go, Hera!"

"I didn't do anything!" I screamed. Why was he so mad at me? "Besides if anything it's your fault we're here because you said Madevery put a block on the cages.. Yet she still used her Ghost Tricks to bring us here! We could have escaped!"

Things only went from bad to worse the moment his stomach growled and he completely veered off topic. "...Make me a sandwich, bitchcake."

"NO!" I screamed. "Not if you keep treating me like this!"

Apparently angry plus empty stomach made Shortstop an even more dangerous person, as he pulled a large, black pistol with "Bloody Murder" engraved on it out of his gun holster and pinned me down by sitting on my abdomen with his knees.

"You're too heavy!" I cried. "Get your bony knees off of my abdomen!"

I let a squeal of surprise as he shoved the barrel of the gun into the right side of my chest, right where the Lung Bat was.

My eyes widened as I felt tears starting to form. "No..."

"Get in the kitchen and make me a goddamn sandwich before I blow your lung out!"

"B-But if you do that and hit the Lung Bat in my chest, I'll die!" I screamed, tears starting to fall over my lids.

His eyes widened as he looked surprised for a moment, possibly in disbelief. "Like I'd believe that crap..! And even if it's true..!" He shoved the barrel even deeper into my chest, putting quite alot of his weight on it, too.

"STOOOP!" I screamed in both pain and fear. "YOU'RE GOING TO KILL ME OVER A SANDWICH?! Y-YOU'RE A CRAZY BASTARD!"  
>A scowl filled his face as his grip tightened on the trigger. "YOU'RE DESPICABLE, YOU WITCH..! DIE!" ..And then he pulled the trigger.<p>

I closed my eyes and screamed at the top of my lungs in fear and what I thought was pain.. But after a moment I realized I was still alive.. Unsure if I was in shock or not, I opened my eyes to see no wound at all in my body, and that Shortstop was messing around with his gun close to his face.

"Of all times to not have bullets in Bloody Murder..!" He yelled angrily.

I took this time while his guard was down to shove him off of me and bolt to the kitchen to... Even if it took away my dignity.. Make the boy his damn sandwich.

I opened the fridge to find.. Ham.. Good.. Lettuce, tomato, and pickles... Awesome.. Onions and mustard. ….Excellent. I took them out along with a bag of whole wheat bread off the top of the fridge that had already been opened. ..I don't know who was here before us but whatever I might die if I don't do this. I started layering the ingredients until I was done and then put what was left where it belonged. I then put my not-so-masterful master piece onto a paper plate and walked over to the entrance of the bedroom, peering it.

Shortstop was laying on the only bed in the room, which was pushed up into the far left corner, facing the wall with his gun on the nightstand. I could hear his stomach growling from where I was, too.

"..Jacques.." I said gently to the boy who had just tried to blow my lung out.

He shot up and at first glared at me, but then calmed down. His eyes focused on the sandwich before him in my hands and I saw him lick his lips hungrily. "..Give it."

"Ah-ah-ah.." I held it away, even though he was on the other side of the room from me. "..Not until you apologize for hurting me, almost killing me, and making me cry." My eyes were still red from when I was crying a few minutes ago.. Atleast I think they were.

After a few seconds hesitation and enough time for his stomach to growl again, Shortstop finally crossed his arms and grumbled. "..I'm sorry... Hera. May I..please have my sandwich?"

I could tell he had a hard time saying "please" the way he said it through gritted teeth and how his eyebrow twitched angrily.  
>"..Good boy. Here."<p>

His eyes widened in surprise, and a bit of territorial anger as I sat on the bed next to him, offering him the plate.

Before he even had time to get mad, he tore the sandwich off of the plate and shoved it into his mouth, eating quickly and with large bites as I realized just how hungry he really was.

"..Aww did you get homicidal and extra grumpy because you were starving?" I poked his abdomen and he immediately slapped my hand away.

"..Shut up." He mumbled around his food.

"Shh hey it's okay you don't need to be upset you have your sandwich.." I stroked his hair trying to calm him down a bit more but the way he glared at me I just pulled my hand away.

A few seconds later he tossed the paper plate into the trash can and took his boots off, throwing them onto the floor along with his shirt that he pulled off. He put his hat on the nightstand and layed back down on the bed, back to me as he faced the wall.

I blinked and stared at him for about two minutes until he broke the silence. "..You aren't going out to the couch, are you?"

"Nope in exchange for making the sandwich I get dibs on the bed."

"Too bad, girly, I'm not moving." He grumbled.

"..Fine then." I put my nursing hat on the nightstand, kicked my ballet slippers off, took the apron off my uniform and pulled my leggings off and threw them aside and went to turn all the lights off in the house.

As I finished I got back and climbed under the covers next to him. I reached over to the light on the nightstand and and grabbed onto the cord.. And then stared at his gun and hesitated until I pulled the cord and turned the last light off.

"..Night." I curled up and got comfortable.

"..Shut up." He grumbled.  
>After that, we both fell asleep.<p> 


	16. The consequences

•°•Amanda's Perspective•°•

I-I don't know what happened.

When Hera brought me to that Dream place, during the operation on Little Monster, I had the knowledge of a real nurse.. And for a little while after we left, too.

..But a few hours later it went away. I even went to the local library and checked out a few books on the human Immune System.. I thought.. Maybe if I read something, that would jog my memory again, and I'd remember..

But I didn't, and I highly doubt that if we ever go back, I'd ever gain that knowledge again.

..But when I go to Nursing School, I'll be learning all that anyways. It won't really matter if I have that knowledge from the.. Dream place or not.

But I can already tell that I'll never retrieve that nursing knowledge I previously had back. All that's left to do is to learn it the fair way like everyone else!

I sighed and tried to smile from my spot on the floor where I was sitting on my knees. Not many doctors and nurses had come through this hallway lately. ..Actually, I don't think it was a very busy hall to begin with! But it was a good thing, too.. Especially since they had to close off the area around Shortstop and Hera..

I cocked my head to look at the two laying on the floor in their unconscious state, an odd green glow emitting from the two, like I saw on Hera when she was in the Dream place, just before she brought me there. ..Except they've been like this for over twelve hours now. Nurse Thompson mentioned something about an Akumu induced Coma.. I'm not sure what that is..Picking up on the fact that I didn't know, she told me what we found in Little Monster was a strain of Akumu, and that Hera also had Akumu, in a way, but they didn't know how to treat it. There was a bat in her lung, an Akumu Core, and something about it was supposed to make her fall into a coma at one point or another.

I reached up and gently flicked the yellow tape that assisted in closing the small area around them off. They really shouldn't be left in the halls like this, but Dr. Niguel said it could be dangerous to move or even try to touch them, so no one's allowed to. For the most part, Lilac and I are in charge of the ones watching over them while they're like this. Nurse Sears if she has the time, too. ..But right now the green haired nurse is somewhere else in Angeles Bay. She left work early to go to her destination. She didn't tell anyone where.. I wonder if we'll find out soon.

"...I hope you two wake up soon." I whispered quietly.

•°•Yvonne Zane's Perspective•°•

I laid on the floor where it was cool, considering how I wasn't allowed to take off my orange, Angeles Bay County Jail jumpsuit off right now.

I sighed. There was a dead beetle infront of my nose on the floor, but it didn't matter. I didn't think I would end up like this. I know that my father wouldn't be proud to find out that I'd be in the county jail for the next twelve months. I guess that I should be lucky that my sentence is only going to be that long.. But time isn't a problem to me.

The reason?

I met someone new. A girl, named Paige. Paige Wagner. Paige was my cell mate, and she had the most beautiful blonde hair I'd ever seen. Infact, everything on her was attractive. It took her thirty minutes to convince me that she was in her forties when we first met. She looked like she could have been in her twenties.

She told me that she was recently sentenced to three months for prostitution, which I had a hard time believing considering how beautiful she was. I thought that somebody would have offered her a proper job by now. It turns out that we aren't so different..Except I've never been a prostitute. I've done other things, though. She asked me what I was sentenced for, and I told her a year for a minor case of child abuse, which I regret along with a lot of things in my life. Paige said that everyone makes mistakes, infact, she told me about her three younger siblings: Cee and Bethany, who were twins, and Mike. She also told me how she used to bully used to bully Cee a lot when they were kids. Except Hera and I aren't kids anymore. I'm nineteen now. I suppose I just need a different way of expressing my problems instead of taking it out on others and throwing myself at the feet of men... And women, and hermaphrodites, and others.. I'm pansexual.

Paige's jewelry was confiscated when she came in here. That included her spiked choker and bracelet, along with a piercing she had close to her lip on the left side of her face. But they said that she would be getting them back after her sentence, though.

I don't want her sentence to end before mine, but I also know that Paige can't be kept here forever. She has to get back home, to Maine. But I hope that when we get out, we'll continue to stay in contact, and we will be able to see each other again.

..Because there's something about her that makes me want to see her over and over again.

Paige wasn't in the cell right now. It was just me, myself, and I. I sat up, thinking that she wouldn't mind if I used her crimson lipstick that she had managed to sneak into here. The guards had noticed that her lips were painted, but didn't ask questions. Probably because they didn't think there was drugs in the lipstick or anything.

I reached over to the corner in Paige's mattress where there was a slight rip. I slid a finger or two inside a dug until I found something solid, being careful not to make the hole bigger.

I grabbed onto the lipstick tube and pulled it out along with a bit of stuffing, which I quickly put back into the mattress.

I could tell just by looking at the tube, that it was one of the older brands. I couldn't even identify it. The outside of the tub had a kind of skin-like pattern that you would find on an older suitcase and when I took the lid off, the inside of the tube had swirly and other patterns molded onto it from when it was made. The lipstick itself had obviously been very faithful to Paige over the years, as it was getting to be rather worn down. It wasn't in the usually pointed shape anymore- It was rounded and shaped like a dome in a way. They usually say to throw old make up out after a while, because it can start to grow bacteria. Normally, I would. However, this was the only make up available other than the lipstick that belong to the others here in jail, and it wasn't mine to throw away.

Besides.. I wanted to use it. I wanted to use it because it belonged to her, and also so I would look nice when she got back from wherever she was.

I didn't need to screw up the lipstick because it was already screwed up as high as it would go when I took the lid off. This was because it was so short by now, it wouldn't get mushed if the lid was on.

I started applying the product to my lips. I've been doing this for enough years that I could be rather accurate without using a mirror, just like those girls from junior high and high school taught me, the popular girls. That's what they did- They found girls who they thought were worthy enough to hang with them, and taught them how to be like them. How to dress to attract boys, and how to flirt with teachers hopes to get extra credit (which rarely worked, and I didn't really like doing anyways), and how to bully others to make you feel powerful.

But I don't know why they chose me. It must have been a mistake, because I always had to try to be different and say the right thing so they wouldn't realize that they chose the wrong girl. I wasn't anything like them until I learned to be. I used to be shy, but eventually that changed when they changed me. I'm still shy on the inside, though.

I know that if I had a daughter, I would never let her do the things that I used to do. I wouldn't change her, either. But I probably won't be allowed to have a daughter now.

I put the lid back on the lipstick and put it back into the mattress where it wouldn't fall out, as I heard footsteps approaching, and I hoped that they would be Paige's.

I tried not to look disappointed when I saw that they belonged to a female guard that was now unlocking my cell door. "Zane, you have a visitor." She said as she slid the door open.

A visitor? For me?

Without saying a word, I stood up and walked over to her as she led me to a two-sided booth separated by glass. I sat down and looked up to see Leslie Sears smiling at me from the other side of the glass. My eyes widened and I scrambled to pick up the phone to communicate with her the same time she did.

"Hello, Yvonne." She said sweet and simply.

"H-Hey.." I said, voicing trembling, unsure what to say to the woman I hadn't had a personal conversation with since I was thirteen, despite the fact that we were in the same hospital up until recently. I eyed her Caduceus uniform, she must have just gotten off work.

"How have you been?" She asked me, grinning a bit.

"G-Good.." I wasn't sure why she was here speaking to me, so I wasn't sure if I should really bring up Paige or not until I knew what she wanted.

"Well, that's good."

"Yeah, um.." I swallowed. "It's nice to see you, but.. Why are you here?" I tried not to sound rude. I also noticed that it was hot. I wasn't sure if it was because of the temperature, or my own nervousness.

"Even if you were thirteen at the time I babysitted your sister, I still cared about you then. I still do now." The nurse told me. I wasn't surprised, the nurse had a big heart for everyone. "..And if you were still a minor when your father had to leave, I'd of made sure that both you and your sister had a place with me like your sister does now."

I smiled sheepishly. "T-Thanks.. That means a lot." I supposed it was good that my sister was with someone more experienced now, instead of someone of someone as young as me that didn't really know how to be a parent figure. "I'm glad you still care about me, because I care about you, too." Even if she didn't need to spend as much time babysitting me back then, considering I was in my early teens by then. But she did do somethings, like stopping me from going to one of the popular girl's birthday parties that was going to have underaged drinking there. Instead, she helped Hera and I make macaroni and cheese that night as a surprise for my dad when he came home from his temporary job at JCPenney's, which he seriously hated.

My dad.. I still miss him sometimes, and I hope he comes back from the war one day. I don't remember my mom. Dad said that she was a pretty blonde with glasses, and was a pharmacist. He told me that she went on a business trip one day and didn't come back because she fell in love with another man, or something. Or that she died, or stayed for business. The story would change every time that he told it, but her appearance would remain the same.

Leslie and I continued chatting for awhile, mostly about my sister and stuff that was going on at Caduceus. Hera _thought_ she was in love with one of the doctors, Eric died and Hera tried to do something unreasonable about it, Lilac drove an ambulance (I wasn't all that surprised, that girl is pretty wild), some species of pathogens called Akumu showed up, and Hera treated one of the victims by going to some ungodly place with Amanda, Hera has a bat in her lung (..What?), Hera and some other kid were in some kind of coma, Hera started remembering what happened before she and my step-mom came to live with dad and I, that Hera seriously needs her hair re-dyed, and that she needs to go to the dentist because Leslie suspected that she had cavities. I tried making sense of all of that while she told me about her romance with Dr. Chase, the cute blonde doctor with pierced ears that made jokes a lot.

For the most part, all that I really had to talk about was Paige. I wasn't sure what Leslie really thought of me being friends with a prostitute, but at least she was being supportive.

This went on for a bit until the female guard came back and told us that visiting hours were over. Leslie and I said our good-byes, and the guard took me back to my cell, where Paige was already waiting with a pack of old, scratched up playing cards.

"Hey, Zane." She greeted, not looking up as she shuffled the old cards. "Where've ya been?"

"Talking to an old friend," I said as I pulled a chair out and sat across from her. "Apparently my sister needs her hair re-dyed soon." I laughed.

"Did I ever tell ya about the time I dyed Cee's hair blue?" She asked as she dealt seven cards out to each of us, putting the pile in the middle.

"No!" I said, picking up my cards and sorting out the pairs. "Tell me!"

"So for awhile, Cee had this blue streak in her dirty blonde hair, right? She used this special dye for it and everything." She sorted out her pairs. "Got a five?" She asked in the middle of telling her story. I shook my head and she drew a card. "One day, as a prank, I decided to put the dye in the bottle of shampoo she had at the time."

"Have any four's?" I asked.

Paige took her Four of Hearts from her hand and handed it to me, which I matched with my Four of Spades.

"Six's? What did she do?"

"Nope. Well, she used the shampoo and it dyed all of her hair blue. She got pretty pissed and it looked like she was going to punch me. I didn't realize that the dye was permanent, either."

I laughed and drew a card from the pile, which turned out to be a Queen of Hearts. "Is it still like that now?"

"Yup. Tens?" She asked and looked up at me.

I shook my head as a I grinned, picturing what it would be like if I were Cee. She was a doctor in Portland, Maine, apparently. I wondered if anyone gave her a tough time for having a head of blue hair, thanks to her sister.

Paige drew a card, still looking at me. "Did you use my lipstick?"

"Yeah.." I started. "Is that okay?" I didn't wanna upset her, and I was starting to get nervous again.

"Of course it's okay, that's what friends are for. It looks nice on you." She said, blushing a bit.

Relief washed over me as I blushed at the same time. "I always thought that it looked pretty nice on you, too, Paige."

She smirked as she laid down a whole hand of pairs that she had been hiding from me, ending the game.

•°•Hera's Perspective•°•

"Just answer the question, and I'll give you the cookie."

"Better idea: You give me all the cookies, and I don't blow your brains out."

Shortstop and I stared at each other, eyes locked, as we sat across from each other at the kitchen table.

In my front of me was a plate of double chocolate cookies, one of which I held teasingly in my hand.

Infront of _him_, however, was Bloody Murder, which still didn't have any bullets in it.

"I know you're bluffing," I said. "You still haven't put any bullets in your gun yet, and I'm the only way that you're going to get fed without doing any cooking yourself."

He glared at me, realizing I had figured out at least one reason why he stopped trying to kill me. He still didn't like me, though.

"Just tell me.. Why do you hate me?" I asked for what felt like the seventh time that day.

I saw him lock his eyes on the cookie for a moment, and then look up at me. "..Fine."

I smiled a bit and waited for him to give his answer.

"You _endangered_ my best friend's life, I don't trust you, I don't like people in general." He finally said.

I blinked. "...I saved him."

"Yeah, when there were plenty of professionals around."

"..Good point." Okay, so he had me there.

"..Not to mention the Dream Realm is a dangerous place if you don't know what you're doing. You'd only be endangering him more." Was he scolding me?

I sighed. "Okay, I'm sorry.. I'm also sorry I got you caught up in this.." I picked a second cookie up off the plate, and handed it to him, along with the first.

He blinked in surprise that I had given him two, and took them slowly instead of snatching them. "..You didn't have to give me two."

"I wanted to." I smiled a little.

He gave me an odd look as he took a bite out of one of the cookies.

"Do you have any idea why Madevery would want to put us in one of these.. Sub realm things in the first place?" I placed my hand on top one of the other cookies on the plate.

"She already said earlier that she wanted to use us as guinea pigs. She probably just traps people there to use them as her little play things. That's what she does. Traps, plays with, and tortures people. She likes tragedies and is sadistic. Don't fall for however nice she might be."

I rolled the cookie over to him, which he kept in the same collection he had the others. He hadn't really touched them except for the bite he took out of one earlier.

"I wonder why it is that she brought both of us here.. I mean.. She hasn't done anything to use s since we've gotten here.. Maybe she's just trying to get us to get along.." I wondered out loud as I watched Shortstop carefully. "Hey, are you feeling okay? You don't look so good." He had looked rather pale for awhile, I realized, and he look especially sick now.

My question was answered as he leaned over and vomited onto the floor. Mostly blood.

"Oh my god!" I went around to the other side of the table and grabbed his shoulder as he moaned in pain.

"Don't.. Touch me.." He whispered weakly, pushing me aside as he got up. He tried to walk around the table to the couch, but he hadn't even made it that far when he collapsed onto the floor.

I quickly ran over to him and checked him over. He was still breathing and his heart was still beating, but he was unconscious I had a bad feeling that he was bleeding internally.

"Please let there be some way that I can help him!" I wailed.

"Oh, there's a way alright." A familiar voice said.

I looked up to see a brunette woman with a red hair bow sitting on the armrest of the couch.

"Madevery?! H-Hey hold on a second! Why don't you let us go so I can get him help! You've got a lot of things to explain, too!"

"Oh, I have a better idea in mind." A devious smile crossed the woman's face.

"A-And what is that?" I asked nervously.

"Either let him die, and I'll set you free.." She began. "..Or save him and stay here forever." A tray with surgical tools on it materialized in the mistress's hand.

"Do you even have to ask?!" I shouted. "Of course I'm going to save him."

Madevery smirked and set the tray down beside me, crossing one leg over the other.

"I just.. hope that I can.." I said as I lifted his shirt and snapped gloves on, along with a surgical mask.

I took a bit of the antibiotic gel on my finger and applied it where I was planning to make an incision, trying to ignore the looks Madevery was giving me, like I was making the wrong choice or something. I ignored her and picked up the scalpel, making an incision.

..And then he came back to consciousness and started screaming in pain as I clamped the incision open.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, while Madevery just was laughing hard.

"I'm trying to_ save_ you..!" I said, voicing trembling, as I took a good look at the operation field and saw that there was blood pooling on his stomach, which I took the drain to.

"I DIDN'T ASK YOU TO!" He screamed.

I tried to block out the sound of his screaming as I went back to draining the blood. After all, he wasn't struggling, and I might as well finish.

Underneath the blood, I found many ulcers, some of which I managed to inject the medication into, and others I failed to get to before they hemorrhaged again.

"AUUUGH!" He wailed as Madevery continued to laugh, somehow finding this amusing. I injected stabilizer and started draining the blood again, despite the fact that he screamed in pain just about every time I touched him.

"THIS IS WHAT I MEANT BY THIS BEING DANGEROUS!"

I winced as I injected the medication into the last of the ulcers, finally treating them all. I had rushed the operation horribly because the sound of his screaming was distracting.

I injected a bit more stabilizer as I went to close him back up with the sutures.. Failing horribly.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THOSE THINGS, DRAWING A SPIDER WEB?!" He glared at me as I pulled them out and redid them, finally applying the gel and bandage.

I looked over at Madevery as she clapped slowly, Shortstop still in pain.

"W-What are you doing?!" I screamed at her.

"Congratulations. That level of torture deserves the two of you freedom." She grinned.

"B-But you said.. We'd have to stay here forever if I saved him.." I said confused.

The last thing I remembered in the moment was her smirking and slowly snapping her fingers as everything went black.

..The next thing I remember was screaming and waking up in Caduceus.

"HOLY-"

My eyes flew open as I sat up and looked around rapidly. I was sitting next to Shortstop, who was still screaming in pain, and noticed that there was yellow tape around the area. I could also see Lilac sitting on the floor about a foot from me, staring at us in disbelief.

"...WHAT... THE.. _DR. CHASE_!" She called for the blonde doctor came running around the corner with Nurse Thompson, and the only thing I could do was look over at Shortstop in pain and wonder if I had actually tortured and did this to him or not.


	17. GUILTY PARTY: Inside The Base

•°•Toxica's Perspective•°•

"Maaaaaark!" An eleven year old girl's voice rang out. "Maaaaaaark!"

I blinked my cold, white eyes as I watched her through a bush. She had black pigtails with white streaks, and was wearing a black and white outfit. Castalia called it "gothic lolita". She said that her daughter wore it when she was little. This girl also had a black hood with a white trim, and was carrying a picnic basket in her hands.

"Victim 02 has been spotted." I informed Castalia, my eyes still locked on the girl.

"You know what to do," The blonde in the black jumpsuit whispered in my ear as she laid her hand on my shoulder, her hair casting a shadow over her eyes and her voice flowing almost gracefully into my right ear. "..Take her."

I nodded and uncoiled my whip as the older, blonde female with glistening gold eyes took a step or two back. I gave my whip a practice whip, which took down a large, blue dragonfly that, for some odd reason, had been flying these night skies.

"W-Who's there?!" Victim 02 cried out, voice trembling when she heard the sound of my deadly whip cracking the crisp night air that was beginning to bite at my exposed flesh. Not that I cared.

I crawled through the bushes and stood up straight, totally visible to her now, as I was standing a few feet in front of her, the window now blowing my ponytail, and a bit of my skirt, to the side.

The girl, now facing me, let out a loud howl of fear and took many steps back until she backed into a brick wall, closing her eyes tight as the wind began to blow harder, stirring her pigtails, hood, and bell dress around more.

I whipped my whip to the side, slashing her cheek and whipping her head to the side as she screamed, blood dripping from the now present laceration that the toxins from my whip would now seep into.

"BIG BROTHER!" She screamed for the being that just wasn't there as I slashed her again, this time on the lips, shutting her up for the most part as she dropped her picnic basket, sinking to the ground, crying quietly.

I grabbed her by the bottom of her bell skirt and began to drag her along the ground to the car, which Castalia had already warmed up and opened the trunk of.

I carefully lifted the girl up and set her into the trunk and then went back for her picnic basket and placed it in the trunk beside her. You never know what useful things could be in there.

I slammed the trunk, cutting off 02's crying as I got into the passenger seat of the Hyundai and closed the door as Castalia took off, both of us buckling our seatbelts as she headed for the base.

"..Do you think that this victim will do?" I looked over at Castalia as she drove rather quickly, yet accurately due to experience.

"Of course." She answered. "Karl'll think of something to do with her that will fit into the groove of infecting people with Akumu."

"That is true." I responded as Castalia took a sharp turn, burning rubber in the process.

"Do you think that Karl will be introducing us to the "others" when we get back?" I asked a moment later.

"I guess," He introduced you to me at random while you were still in that Culture Tank. Castalia said as she made another sharp turn, the sky above is getting darker from lack of proper lighting.

"Would you?" Castalia turned to me, and without any further explanation, I knew what she was saying. I opened the glove box and took out a small remote control, pushing the big, black, center button that opened two doors there were in a single file line.

It was dark, and Castalia wasn't allowed to have her headlights on yet due to possibly giving our location away to anyone who was not permitted in the parking garage. Slowly, and while trying to make as little noise as possible, she drove inside, and kept going until we heard both doors close behind us. It was then that we knew it was okay to turn our headlights on, and she did so.

The area before us lit up. The parking garage was painted white, and was made of concrete. There were no defined lines for parking spaces, this was meant to be guess work, really. Castalia parked at the far side of the room, and she took a moment after we parked to turn to me and say "Take the sedative out of the glove box. I'll leave the lights on to give you enough light to see your way to-"

"That won't be necessary." I cut her off. "I'm supposed to be blind, correct? I think I can handle myself in the dark."

She gave me an odd look. "..Alright then. Get the keys out of the ignition, will ya? I'm gonna go call the elevator." Before giving me time to answer, she opened the driver's side door and spun her feet around, getting out and slamming the door, which made the car shake a bit.

I opened the glove box, and rustled around for a syringe with yellow fluid already loaded into it as I wrapped my slender fingers around it, pulling it out and holding it up to my face, then lowered it back down again next to my thigh, carefully, to be careful not to prick myself with it. It would be a bad day if my partner had to lug both 02 and I into the elevator.

I looked over to the ignition, where Castalia's keys were. Without them in, we'd have no lighting whatsoever because the headlights would be shut off. I looked down lower on the keys and saw a few key chains. One was of a syringe with green fluid in it, another was of a Type V Tetarti, which I would have to ask her about later, and the last was off a chibi with orange hair and blue eyes. I raised an eyebrow.

The headlights turned off as I turned the keys and took them out of the ignition, and I took some of my fingers off of the body of the syringe, using them to open the car door before I put them back onto the syringe to hold, kicking the car door shut with my my foot. I felt around the car with ease until I made it to the trunk, lifting it up my hand that had the key in my other fingers.

"BROTHER-"

I quickly guessed and stabbed 02 with the syringe, injecting quickly. She went quiet soon after that. I tossed the syringe aside in the trunk to free one of my hands, which I then used to scoop her up and throw her over my shoulder with, getting the picnic basket with the hand I had the keys in. I turned around and headed over to the elevator, which I knew was on the left side of the room from where we had parked, and walked over to where Castalia already had it waiting. I stepped inside and waited for the doors to close and the elevator lights to switch on, and I looked over and noticed Castalia blowing a large pink bubble with chewing gum, which popped on her face. She used her tongue to scrape her gum into her mouth and kept chewing, holding her hand out to me to place her keys in. I couldn't help but notice that she looked like the typical teenager that she always spoke to me about while doing this, but I did it anyways.

"..Castalia? The orange haired keychain. Who is he?" I asked as I set 02 on the floor like a doll.

Her face took on an odd expression as she answered. "Abioud.."

Her husband?

I didn't say anything more as we waited silently in the elevator.

The door opened, and Castalia grabbed onto 02 by her arm, dragging her out, while I walked out with her picnic basket in my hand.

"Hey, Keisha!" Castalia called out to a dark skinned woman with black hair, who was wearing a black body suit identical to Castalia's. "Take care of 02, will ya?"

The woman gave a thumbs up and came over to us, grabbing 02 by both arms and heading off to one of the lab rooms with her.

As the Keisha woman took 02 away to prepare her for what would be coming soon, I followed Castalia through a small laboratory, and through another door after that to where a field of culture tanks were.. And oh my toxins, what is chaotic. There were walking pathogens, such as myself, of the other GUILT strains, running about unsupervised, laughing, and what not. I could not comprehend this behavior, so I turned to Castalia to inquire. It was as if she had read my mind, because she answered before I even asked her my question. "They are acting like typical teenage scum, and most of the girls are rather slutty... At least that was considered slutty when I was your age."

I blinked at the word "slutty", as I was unsure what it meant. I had a feeling that the blonde would ridicule me if I were to ask, so I waited for her to finish.

"..As for the two young twins over there? Brats. At large."

I turned my attention to fraternal twins, a boy and girl, that were around the age of eight, I suppose The girl had a red, low hanging ponytail and eyes that matched. Her outfit was a white top and skirt, and also sandals. The boy on the other hand, had blue hair of a tolerable length and eyes of the same color. Instead of sandals, he had white sneakers. I was also fascinated that they had a set of white wings. I assumed that they were Deftera.

I watched on as the girl chased her brother through the aisle of the culture tanks with a bloodied chainsaw that roared in her hands, her brother wielding a much similar one.

"..Of all the weapons." I heard Castalia start. "..Karl chose to give the youngest ones chainsaws."

I moved my attention to a girl whom I guessed was around the age of thirteen who was wielding a katana. Her hair was mint, and she wore it in two, swirly buns with many pieces hanging down. Her eyes were icy blue. I noticed that her outfit consisted of white with a dark green trim. She had sandals, and a kimono that was getting to be a bit short. Then I also noticed that the bow was tied in the front..

"Her kimono isn't all that revealing, but she tied the bow in the front instead of the back." I commented to Castalia. Castalia leaned forward and squinted her eyes. "..I think she's more of a moron than a slut." She said, standing up straight again. "That girl over there is Kyriaki." She said about the girl with the wrong bow placement, and then directed her attention to a girl with orangish skin and brunette hair in a braid

"I'm guessing that she is a Paraskevi, but her coloring resembles that of a frozen Paraskevi body more.." The blonde observed. The girl that we decided was Paraskevi had black and white converse, a shortish yellow dress (Though the length didn't bother me), and a picnic basket on her arm. Her eyes were brown and her braid was held in place by a pink bow. For the most part, she was minding her own business. But if the Kyriaki girl started to swing her katana too close to the other pathogen, the Paraskevi would swiftly reach into her basket and pull out an arrow, such as the kind associated with bows, and would chuck them at her for self defense. The Paraskevi girl looked to be around 15. Castalia whispered "Oh, mother of god, no." and I looked to see what she was talking about A girl with light bluish hair, had a tubetop of triangles on, blue eyes, green sandals, a green skirt tied around her waist, and skin with some Triti membranes on it stood nearby.

"I'm not sure what's wrong with the Triti Girl." I admitted.

"..Do you see that gun in her hand?" Castalia asked me. I looked closer and saw that the Triti female was indeed gripping a small gun in her hand.

"Yes, but what of it?" I asked as I watched her pull the trigger, launching a single Triti membrane with thorns around fastened into place flying across the air, finally pinning itself to the far wall.

"..She doesn't know how to hold a gun, her aim is terrible.." Castalia began.

"Her aim looked rather good to me." I said.

"That's because you've never held a gun before." Castalia responded. "Sadly, for us, that gun is that girl's weapon, and she can't even use it properly. She almost shot her teammate by accident." Castalia pointed out to me a red haired fellow around the Paraskevi age. He held a staff with an orb filled with Pempti fluid.

He hadn't seemed to notice that he was almost-pierced with a Triti Membrane- He was too busy polishing the orb on his staff to notice. His shirt was yellow, his pants gray, and his shoes blue. Now that I looked closer, his hair was more of a reddish pink, like that of one of the Pempti cores. His eyes were yellow.

The last of these walking pathogens had to be Savato-As he was the only one remaining and he was also holding a Scythe. Most of his hair was blue, like Blue Savato, but the tips were Purple, like the main Savato body. His eyes were purple, and they had this kind of wild, yet friendly look to them... His irises reminded me of spider webs. For some reason, he was wearing black and white converse, black skinny jeans, and a white t-shirt with a skull on it. I had a feeling that this Savato teenager, who looked around seventeen, had the best clothing.. Although he sometimes joined in on the madness, Savato usually stayed where he was. It seemed like he could cause a lot more chaos than he was if he currently wanted to, though

His purple eyes gazed over at us, a friendly yet mischievous look in his eyes. "Well, well, well." He began. "Everyone, it looks like they're finally here."

The chaos seized as everyone looked over at us. Those who had not noticed us before saw us now.

"Hey, you guys, Simon's right!" One of them called out as they all started coming at us at once.

The Triti girl ran up to us. "Toxica! Castalia! We've heard so much about you! My name's Teresa!" She grabbed onto my hands, smiling, and I pulled my hands out of her grasp, glaring just a bit.

"Tell them your last name, Teresa." The Pempti male nodded to her.

Castalia scowled. "We are quite aware of the various strains of GUILT, thank you. I'm pretty sure that we can figure out just by looking at you."

"Oh.." Tresa lowered her hands, beginning to frown a bit. "Well, then, you won't mind if I introduce everyone then!" She quickly ran over and grabbed the Kyriaki.

"This is Kameko! She tries to act older than she really is! Even if we haven't known her for long!" She let go of the mint-haired girl, who watched her. She then picked up the Deftera twins, who squeaked in protest as she gave them a squeeze.

"These two cuties are Donnie and Debbie! Aren't they just adorable?!"

"Teresa, we can introduce our-" The red head was cut off as Teresa covered his mouth. "..And this is Powell! He's a little weird!" She sprang away from him.

"Weird?!" He yelled after her.

"Would you just shut up already?" Castalia asked, glaring at her.

"And this is-" For once, Teresa was shut up. She was shut up by the Paraskevi girl with brunette hair, who owned the arrows that she kept in that basket of her's.

A small gasping whimper came from Tresa as her eyes widened. Blood dripped down from where the brunette had penetrated her lips with one of her arrows.

"..Castalia asked you to stop." She began, then narrowed her eyes. "..She shouldn't have to to ask you twice." She removed the arrow from her lip while everyone got extremely quiet.

"Patricia..!" Powell hissed at the Paraskevi girl as he ran over to her. "You can't do that to your own team mates!"

Patricia closed her eyes and frowned. "..Yeah, I know."

Teresa let out a loud scream as she fled the room through the metal door into the lab, shoving past Keisha, who had now entered the lab. "Castalia!" She called out to her. "Karl says that you'll be the one leading 02's procedure!"

"What?!" Castalia quickly whirled around. "But he already assigned us a mission tonight!"

Keisha shook her head, holding up a clipboard and pointing to it. "He moved the schedule around so that Patricia and Powell would be going on that one tonight!"

"If my partner isn't put on a probation.." I heard Powell whisper.

Although Karl had a somewhat kind spirit about him, he was still a part of Delphi and a probation might be in order for harming one's own team mates.. One of the same GUILTY PARTY.

It was then that a rather large, hairless man with a black wife beater and black jeans came in. He had Delphi's insignia hanging off of his belt.

"Patricia," He said in a strange, and maybe slightly irritable voice. "Karl needs you."

Everyone looked to Patricia as she dropped the bloody arrow and crossed her arms, almost pouting as she walked over to him. "Fine, Big Guy." He lead her out of the room, closing the door behind him as they vanished from view.

I know that the large man has been around even before I, but I have never come to known his name.

In a way, he was almost a nanny. Karl was also infatuated with him.

"Then I guess that's that." Simon broke the silence after they were gone. "What's in the basket?" He nodded to me.

"This belongs to 02." I told him. "..We plan to go through it later."

'"Why not now?" Simon asked as he took the basket from my hands, leading me to narrow my eyes at him. He flipped open the lid and pulled out a piece of paper with writing on and and a black and white picture attached.

"Dearest Mark,

You are the greatest big brother and have always been there to love and protect even when I have doubted that anyone would. It pains me greatly to see you in such pain; both over your old breakup with Eia awhile ago and the physical pain that has hospitalized you now. I bake these treats for you hoping that they will ease your pain.

Signed,

Emily"

"Castalia.." I began after putting together the pieces.

"I know." She responded. "..The girl we kidnapped is our last victim's younger sister."

•°•Patricia's Perspective•°•

As the Big Guy lead me through the darkened hallways of the Delphi base, I glanced up at the walls that were lined with Karl's family members in the older days, including Adam, the former Delphi leader. The former Delphi leader was in some rather interesting attire.

I have only been walking this Earth for twenty-four hours. There is still so much that I was going to have to learn.

I noticed that there was one picture of him standing next to a woman with long, royal blue hair and narrowed, red eyes that I could only describe as mysterious, and maybe even a bit flirtatious.

I stopped and pointed at her portrait. "Who's that, Big Guy?"

Big Guy stopped as well and looked up at where I was pointing. "Ah, that is EVE-X*. She was Adam's wife and the mother of his son."

I stared at the picture for a few more minutes. I thought it hard to believe that Adam could have a wife considering what I have learned about him so far. This EVE-X* was the mother of his child, too? I thought that his descendants would have just been lab created, not if his own blood. I suppose that the only thing that I could do was take Big Guy's word for it. After all, he's the only one here so far that I can really trust. I mean.. Even Powell, my own partner, seems sketchy.

"We shouldn't keep the prince waiting any longer." Big Guy said as he continued on again. That's right.. How could I have forgotten? Karl and his twin sister, Christine, are the prince and princess of GUILT. Christine wasn't here, though.. No one said anything when I asked about her. It was as if she was no longer apart of Delphi, or something..

It was then that Big Guy lead me up the red carpeted staircase that lead into the darkness. It felt like we were walking forever until I felt Big Guy grab my arm and yank me up onto the top platform. He swung the doors only for us to find that Karl was laying in his throne with his legs hanging over the side. He was smiling at us in a rather freaky way as Big Guy let go of my arm and walked towards him with me.

"Here is Patricia Paraskevi like you requested, sir." Big Guy motioned his large arm to me as Karl watched with interest, eyeing me.

"Well, hello, darling~" He said in a rather sweet tone that made me uncomfortable as he adjusted himself in his throne so that he was laying upside down with his feet climbing up the throne back. "So you've been mixing up mischief today, mm?" He asked as he kicked his feet a bit.

"Yes, sir.." I said, trying to ignore as he held the middle and index fingers on his right hand together and licked them.

"Well, we can't be having that, now can we?" His words were hard to decipher as he still had his tongue on his fingers when he spoke.

"..No, sir." I sighed.

"Troublesome or not, I need to explain to you the plans for tonight's mission." He flicked his fingers, the saliva flying off. "Do you understand? I already explained them to Powell."

I nodded. "Yes, sir.

"Good," He motioned for me to come close. "I need you to use the upgraded version of Seigyo to infect a large quantity of people at the dance taking place at the Angeles Bay Middle School tonight."

"How will this work?" I asked him.

"You and Powell will take out the chaperones of the dance and disguise yourselves as them. Then, select any dance attendee and infect him or her with my gorgeous Seigyo." I watched as he got up right and stood up from his throne, making his way over to Big Guy and began wrapping his body around the other male.

"Um, sir?" Big Guy asked, looking rather uncomfortable with what Karl was doing to him.

"Oh, hush~" Karl purred as he slid his hand slowly up the older male's rm.

"..And then?" I couldn't take my eyes off of Karl.

"As the chaperones of the dance, Powell and you will be entitled to choosing the king or queen of the dance. And you will choose the one that you infected."

"But what good will that do?" I asked as I watched Karl tug at Big Guy's top.

"Before you select him or her as the winner, you will tell him or her shortly after you infect them that when the crown is placed on their head, the Seigyo is to activate and that his or her orders are to infect all of the other students attending the dance."

I watched as Karl leaned back, holding onto Big Guy's middle section to support him. "Does that make sense, darling?"

I nodded and looked away from the graceful look that the bald teenager was giving me as I headed back for the door.

"Please be careful, darling!" Karl called after me. "We wouldn't want you to hurt your pretty head~ Mmhm." I heard him chuckle.

Big Guy must have slipped out of the prince's grasp because I soon heard him close the doors behind me and head down the stairs with me.

"..Is Karl always that-" I began.

"Flirtatious?" Big Guy finished for me. "..A little." He sighed.

"That's good to know.. I guess. I was going to say affectionate or playful." I kept walking down the stairs as the bottom of my dress bounced a bit.

I then stopped when I saw that the Big Guy was heading down a hall that we had not taken to get to our destination. "Hey, Big Guy, where are you going?" I asked him. For some reason, I didn't want him to leave. His presence was almost comforting.

"I was going to go to the equipment level and check on how the new models are going." He told me as he continued on, his fists swaying as he went.

"..But, why?" What models?" I chased after him and started to slow down to a walking pace when I had reached his right side and looked up at him.

"Someone has to do it. Karl wanted to look into some new vehicles being engineered."

It made me stop and think about what vehicles Delphi already did and didn't have. I know that they definitely have cars, and I have heard stories about boats and ships. Except I wondered if they had anything like trains or airplanes. Airplanes would probably be the most beneficial to us because they would keep us out of sight the most. At least, they would if we colored and camouflage them correctly. I think that the reason that some of the Delphi uniforms look so different than they did last year was so that they don't get arrested the moment that they step out in public.

"..It doesn't matter." He told me. "You should go prepare for your mission with Powell later tonight."

I stopped following and watched as the man disappeared down the dark hallways. I didn't really want to prepare for the mission right now since I didn't really want to be around Powell at the moment. There was something weird or just plain freaky about him. So, I guess that I would just have to go to my room instead.

Karl had made sure that a room would be prepared for everyone of us pathogens of our GUILTY PARTY. Mine had a pink wallpaper with flowers of a darker pink on it. That way, the flowers would stand out better than if they were the same color as they rest of the wall. The room was to the right of Powell's when I stand right outside of the door. It was also right across from Simon's.

The only one who didn't have a room close to the rest of us was Toxica. Her room was right next to Castalia's, which was located in a different part of this very large base. It makes me wonder.. How is Castalia and Toxica's assignment going right now?

•°•Castalia's Perspective•°•

Ever since Toxica and I infected that boy with Hato, I started recalling somethings from the past about Akumu. The Akumu core is what I infected my own daughter with for life,and Akumu isn't exactly Karl's latest creation because it was designed by him years ago as a child and was improved by Adam. At least, that's what I know.

I looked down at the girl before Toxica and I. I had my usual clothing on in addition to a surgical mask and gloves. The only additions that my partner had was the gloves since she already had a mask concealing that part of her face.

I looked down at Emily who would look up at me with big, sad eyes eyes that would fill with tears and silently spill down her cheeks every now and then. She was strapped down to the operating table by metal restraints and she also had surgical tape plastered onto her mouth to keep her from talking or screaming for help. She wouldn't even try, anyways. She had probably figured out that it would be useless to even try.

"Syringe," I said around my mask as I held my hand out.

I watched as Toxica put her arm almost straight down on the tray, the opening of her large sleeve covering the area where my desired tool was. I watched the material of her sleeve be compressed down as she reached for it, and then watched as she lifted her arm back up and held it out to me. For once, she was making the effort to stretch her hand out of the long and large sleeve, and I could see the tool in her surgical glove-wearing hand.

I accepted the syringe with my own fingers and dipped it into the vial of a clear fluid beside me. I pulled the plunger up until the syringe filled with the fluid. I held it up to my face and flicked the tip of the syringe and watched as the excess fluid leaked down the tip. As I lowered my hand back down towards Emily,her light blue eyes looked to her left, as she didn't want to watch. That may be one of the worst possible things that you could do in this situation. Watch. I pressed the needle tip into her neck as she winced, and I pushed down on the plunger to the syringe, injecting her with It. When the syringe emptied into her, I removed it from her and dropped it onto the tray.

"It's done." I said as I looked up at Toxica.

Toxica nodded. "I will take Emily's information to the Inner Circle if you can deliver Emily to Prince Raitenau."

Not wanting to be stuck dealing with the Inner Circle, I agreed. "Fine, I'll do it. After all, I need to talk to that kid anyways."

"Alright." Toxica began. "Just don't say anything that may get you into trouble. That's the last thing that we need."

"I know that!" I told her as I walked over to the wall and pushed a button that released Emily from the grasp of the metallic restraints.

Instead of trying to escape, all that girl did was situp, almost on her side, in a way, as she bent her legs and kind of let them curve around to her back side while I removed my surgical gloves.

As I walked over to her, she held her arms out to me, as if she expected me to carry her or something. "Fat chance, kid." I told her as she lowered her arms. She slid herself off of the counter, but instead of sticking a landing, her feet fell under her own weight and Emily was on the floor. I rolled my eyes. Great, now she's too weak to even walk. I lifted her up with one hand under and wrapping around her side so that I still had a free hand. Emily wrapped her arms around my neck.

I pulled the surgical tape off of her lips and let it fall to the floor. She then rested her head against my chest as I opened the door and began carrying her out. All of this sudden physical contact was getting to be uncomfortable for me. Especially since this girl wore the same type of clothing style my daughter used to. But that doesn't mean anything, and I won't let it get in the way of my work.

I continued down the halls, and as I went, glanced up at one of the portraits of Adam on the wall, and then another of Heinrich Von Raitenau. Heinrich could never be as good of a leader as Adam, but I supposed he was alright. Then there was one of Karl and his twin sister, Christine. Karl.. You're pretty damn weird, but you might just be good enough to surpass Adam and become the greatest leader that Delphi has ever had.

My thoughts continued as I began with Emily up the unlit staircased line with red carpeting. This base was certainly different from the other bases, and now that I think about it, I'm lucky that I was able to escape both times that Delphi got raided by the other doctors and officials.

I opened the large door and closed it behind me, seeing Karl smiling at us in a very relaxed and laid back manner with his eyes, His head was tilted to the side a little, and his fingers were woven together, as well.

"Would this be Victim 02?" He asked.

"Of course," I answered, slightly annoyed as I brought the girl over. "Who else would it be?"

"My, my." He smirked. "Someone's in a bad, bad mood. Now, let's see her."

I obeyed by prying the girl off of me, which took a bit of work because of the grip she had on me. I extended my arm to hold her far away from my body as possible and released her, watching her hit the floor infront of Karl's feet with a hard thud.

Karl leaned forward and bent over a little to get a better look at her. "Well, aren't you the cutest?" He smirked.

Emily looked up at him with helpless and fearfilled eyes.

"If only you weren't involved with this kind of thing.. You could've been my doll for awhile." He chuckled.

I watched with a strong expression of disapproval. What he meant by "doll", I'm unsure. I don't care very much for his childish games, anyways.

It makes me wonder just how differently Christine runs her services.

"Karl," I began asking my question before I had time to think it through. "Exactly where is your sister now? You never talk about her."

Karl then looked up at me. "When Christine and I parted ways after my father was taken away last year, Christine set off on her own path." He smirked. "She runs a completely different organization that had originally fallen around the same time that Delphi did last year."

"And that is?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Acropolis Pharmaceuticals. But why are you so interested? Delphi is where you belong and where you always will. You wouldn't be able to last a day under my sister's rule. My beloved sister is cruel, even to me!" He held his index finger under his chin to prop his head up and he smirked at me. "What makes you think that you'll be treated any different?"

I glared. "How can you both be so separated from each other when I remember seeing you two designing Akumu and Mezame together as children?"

He waved his hand. "That was a long time ago when Adam was still there to help put the final touches on our diseases and kept us in check.. But Christine always hated me. Now.. Aren't you one to talk when you killed your own husband?" He grinned.

I scowled at him.

"I'll take care of the rest," Karl told me. "You're free to leave. You don't have any other missions assigned at the moment."

Without a second thought, I turned around and began walking away from the prince and the girl. I opened the large doors with a swift motion and slammed them behind me just before I began my descend down the red carpeted stairs.

I could hear the footsteps of another person nearby, but I didn't bother to turn around and see who it was because I didn't care.

"Castalia," I heard a familiar voice say. "You look troubled."

"..Why aren't you meeting with the Inner Circle right now?" I still did not turn around.

"I was on my way to do that just now," Toxica told me. "..But I saw you just now and I wanted to check in with you."

"You were doing something that you shouldn't've been during the time that was gone." I told her. Why else would she "just now" be heading off to perform her task?

"I was cleaning up the lab." She told me. "I didn't think that I should leave it a mess."

"It never takes me that long to clean it up." I grumbled.

Toxica didn't respond. I assumed that she only watched me as her toxins wafted around her.

"Whatever," I said irritably, turning my back to her. "..I need some alone time." I don't know what Toxica's reaction was as I walked off, but I do know that she didn't move farther from me or closer to me. I couldn't hear her shoes clicking.

There will never be another Delphi leader like Adam. It was Adam's words that persuaded me, not Heinrich's or Karl's. While Karl is annoying, he's still far more successful than Heinrich. It seemed like Heinrich couldn't even last a month after he started infecting people before he got caught and blew everything. Still.. He was okay.

I wonder how different things would be if I was leader.


	18. A Dance With Seigyo

•°•Castalia's Perspective•°•

I was resting on my bed, back to the door when I heard footsteps followed by the sound of a certain teenage girl's voice.

"Castalia," It said.

"Yeah, what is it?" I tried not to sound annoyed. I had mostly calmed down from earlier.

"It's Karl." She said. "It appears that he wants to speak to both of us. He didn't tell me what it might be about."

"Then we better not keep him waiting." I said, pulling myself off of the bed and following her to the doorway as she took the lead.

My mind wandered on our trip to that kid's dwelling. What does he want? We finished talking two hours ago.

At the top of the stairs, Toxica opened the door for me. I entered, and saw Karl curled up on that throne of his, smirking in our direction. I also saw a circle of hooded figures standing around him.

The Inner Circle.

"Castalia Preston, Toxica Tetarti. Step forward." Karl commanded of us. Toxica did so immediately, but I hesitated due to suspicions.

"What is this about? Why is Inner Circle here?" I asked, my voice harsh in a somewhat defensive way.

"My dear Castalia!" Karl sighed in a tone of fake disbelief. "Don't be like that! I'm about to reward you with a… Type of promotion, you could call it."

I raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

A devious grin crept across his face. "I'll cut right to it. I'm making you head of Delphi for a day. During that time, Toxica will be your advisor and you will take on all of the roles that I usually do!" He seemed rather excited about it… In a creepy way.

My eyes widened in disbelief.

"Prince Raitenau.. Surely, you aren't serious?" Toxica asked.

"I'm deadly serious." Karl grinned. "Why, do you not have faith in your partner's leadership skills?" He teased.

"It isn't that at all," Toxica said quickly. "I know for a fact that Castalia is one of the more skilled agents here, due to all of her years of experience with Delphi, and-"

"Ah-bah-bah!" Karl waved a hand to silence her. "I don't want to hear any of your excuses. I have decided that Castalia will be leader of Delphi for a day starting at midnight tonight! I've even gained approval from our dear Inner Circle here." He said, motioning to the hooded ones.

"A senior Delphi agent and a pathogen.. An interesting reign." One of them said.

"What makes you want to do this all of a sudden?" I asked Karl. Seriously, this kid had to be up to something. "What are you planning?"

"I'm not planning anything!" Karl insisted. "You've been with Delphi for over a decade! Don't you think that it's about time we test your abilities a little?" He asked as he crossed his arms and kicked back.

"I suppose so." I mumbled.

"Good. He answered. I expect you to conduct at least one major outbreak during this twenty-four hour period. Toxica will be there to help you with that. Do you understand?" Oh, NOW he chooses to get serious.

"Yes." I answered. Doesn't mean I have to if I don't want to, though. After all, I'll be the one in charge at that point, right? I bet I could have that brat disposed of if I really wanted to.

Karl then turned to Toxica. "And you, Toxica.. Do you accept the responsibilities as well?"

"Yes, Prince Raitenau." I heard her respond.

"Good. You're both dismissed until half an hour before midnight. ...We have to prepare for the lady's reign." He chuckled darkly.

I quickly grabbed Toxica's arm and left, slamming the door behind us and walked down the stairs quickly.

"You. Do you have the feeling that he's up to something?" I whispered harshly in Toxica's ear.

"He did act rather suspicious… Shall I keep an eye on him during your reign?" Toxica offered.

I bit my lip. "Yeah… But keep close. I hate to admit it, but I'm going to need all of your help that I can get."

•°•Hera's Perspective•°•

I sat in a wooden chair with my hands folded in my lap as I watched the sleeping blonde before me, awaiting the moment when he would wake up.

When Shortstop and I finally got home, Tyler and Angie were quick to operate on him. I was complaining of chest pains again, and Dr. Niguel thought that it was about time that he examined my Lung Bat again.

I remember his surprise when he discovered that that the pathogen was a she while examining her. He also made several comments about "How calm she is compared to last time." I have started referring to the bat as "Alison". Dr. Niguel wasn't exactly a big fan of that.

He also came across some interesting information after examining Alison for an hour. Her "vitals" had dropped a bit, and so had mine. According to his math, if Alison his outside of my body for a consecutive forty-eight hours, both of us will perish.

My thoughts were interrupted when I saw Shortstop stir in his sleep, and I felt a pang of relief that he was going to be just fine. But as he awoke, I sensed that something wasn't right. He looked confused yet surprisingly calm. He wasn't grabbing me by the shirt or yelling at me.

Oh! He was still a little woozy from the Anesthesia.. I took the chance to talk to him without worrying about him lunging at my throat at any given moment.

"Hey," I smiled. "It's me, Hera. You just got out of surgery. You had some pretty serious stuff going on there with Crohn's and I accidentally left something in you while trying to help you myself." I grinned apologetically and put my hand behind my head. "Also, security confiscated your gun."

"Mmkay.." He responded, focusing on his fingers. I think he comprehended most of what I just said. He'd probably get better soon.

"Ahh, Shortstop?" I asked him.

"Why Shortstop?" He asked, trying to bend his fingers.

I blinked. "Why Shortstop..? Oh! The reason why we call you "Shortstop" and Markus "Little Monster" is because they were names that Dr. Chase came up with awhile ago that the girls and I remembered not long after we met you two, so we decided to refer to you both as that." I giggled. "I'm surprised you're asking about that now." I then leaned over and separated his hands so that he wouldn't have a distraction. "..But that's besides the point. I need to talk to you about some important things."

He gazed up to me and responded with "Shoot." Alright, so he understood and was paying attention!

I sat up straight in my chair and put my hands in my lap. "I wanna know why you've been treating me so terribly! For heaven's sake, you tried to kill me!"

"No I didn't." He responded. "I was bluffing."

"How was that bluffing?!" I couldn't help but snap. "You shoved your gun's barrel into my chest!"

Although he was woozy, the way that he looked and spoke to me was sincere and confident. "I wouldn't have killed you. It was bluff." He said again.

I didn't want to believe it, but I didn't have any other choice but to take his word. "Fine." I crossed my arms and pouted. "So you were lying. But you didn't answer all of my question."

"Why I treat you the way I do? That's easy. Because I don't want to open up to more people than I have to, I act coldly to them." He hesitated before adding "Your hair is really pretty."

I blushed. "W-..What?"

When he didn't answer, I shook my head quickly and questioned him some more. "Why don't you like opening up to people? You don't have to act coldly, either."

"I choose to act coldly and arrogantly to feel better about myself. I'm really self-conscious, and my self-esteem isn't great, either."

Why would this boy be self-conscious or have low self-esteem? He did a good job at hiding it, he seemed like the exact opposite! "But why?"

"Take a guess."

I thought for a moment. Oh, that's right! Aftering looking at his medical records, Angie confirmed that he had been diagnosed with Crohn's Disease a few years ago.

"Is it.. Because you have Crohn's..?" I asked.

He nodded.. And thus began what may have been the deepest conversation of my life.

•°•Lilac's Perspective•°•

I looked in the full-length mirror in my room at the totally sexy beast. Oh wait, that's me.

I had put on the outfit that I usually wear to my recitals: A lavender strap dress, high heels also with straps of the same color, and a flower that's, you guessed it, lavender.

"Lilac!" One of my dads called. "Amanda is here to pick you up!"

"GOT IT, DAD!" I yelled back, probably louder than I should have because there could be little kids in bed already.

I ran out of my room and sat at the top of the stairs, butt-scooting down and probably getting a rug burn. I then grabbed my clutch that I had put on the bottom stair earlier and ran out the door and down the front steps out to the black car that waited with Amanda's sister, Ashley, up front.

Amanda rolled down the window and waved at me. "Lilac! Come on!"

As I ran over to the back seat, Amanda moved one seat down and buckled her seat belt. I got in and buckled mine because safety first, yo.

Ashley took off without a word, but Amanda immediately spoke up. "That's a nice outfit, Lilac! Is it new?"

Oh, that's right. Amanda and Hera have never been able to make it to any of my cello recitals. Something always comes up.

I smirked and hung my arm out of the open window. "Nah, I always wear this get-up at my recitals. You'd of seen it before by now if you could have made it to one."

Amanda grinned. "Oh, yeah! You know, Lilac, you never talk or say much about your recitals other than that they went well. If I didn't always have plans, then I would love to come hear you play sometime! Maybe you could have a private show for me and Hera some time?"

I grinned and looked out of the window away from her. "Yeah, I might be able to do that at some point. But your request sounds pretty kinky."

Amanda let out a wail of shock at her own wording, but before anything else could come of it, Ashley spoke for the first time since she picked me up. "Am I picking Hera up, too?" I made eye contact with her as she looked up in the rear-view mirror. Huh.. Ashley has yellow eyes.. Like lemon flavored Italian soda. It's a far more stunning shade than Hera's contact lenses. But then I remembered Ashley's question.

I crossed my arms in a troubled fashion as I turned to Amanda, who also looked troubled.

"No. Hera's at Caduceus because Dr. Niguel needed to run some more tests.. And she was also worried about a patient." Amanda answered.

I gazed out the window. Seriously, what the hell was that? I mean.. They suddenly woke up and that one kid was screaming like a little bitch.

"I see," Ashley said, eyes on the road. "Then I'll just take you to the middle school."

"Great." I mumbled. Now I'm kind of curious about that freak kid I saved the other day who tried to grab my boob. Like, who was he and why was he in such a hurry to get out of there?

Ashley suddenly pulled up to the school entrance. "Amanda, just call me when you want me to come get you two."

I was already half-way out of the car when Amanda responded with "Uh huh! Okay!" I slammed the door.

I heard Amanda's door close and a car that must have been Ashley driving off as I started walking towards the entrance.

"Wait up!" I heard Amanda call as she ran up next to me before slowing down. "Sorry," I said as I held the door open for her, music and lights blaring and gleaming out.

She closed her eyes and smiled. "It's no problem, thanks!" She ran in ahead of me.

"Wow.." She whispered as I caught up to her. "The school even managed to use the disco ball! It hasn't been used in at least a decade!" She was clearly in awe.

I put a hand on my hip. "Yeah.. I wonder why."

"Who knows!" Amanda exclaimed, looking around. "Oh, look! A spread!" Amanda gasped and grabbed my hand, pointing to a table lined with food where two dudes were hanging out.

She let go of my hand and went over to see what they had.

Smirking, I leaned against a nearby pillar and watched as Amanda reached for the last petit four at the same time that the paler of the two boys did. They looked up at each other and laughed, both insisting that the other take it.

The darker of the two boys smiled my way, and nodded in Amanda's direction. "Your friend?" He asked.

"Yeah," I responded and started walking over towards him so I wouldn't have to shout. "Hey, you look too old to be here. You don't go here, do you?"

"Nah," He shook his head. "But Jaime and I volunteer to help out with the middle school's events sometime." He said, pointing a thumb at the boy who was still talking to Amanda. "Aren't there usually three of you?"

"Eerm.. Yeah." I began awkwardly. "But.. Something came up." I quickly changed the subject. "Anyways. I'm Lilac Fyals. Et toi?"

The boy looked confused until I explained that "Et toi" is French for "and you". He then introduced himself as Andrew Jackson, and that he had a band called Radioactive Spiders. I told him that I hate spiders, but I appreciate music. Although the kind of music his band plays is far different from the kind of music I play on my cello, we had a lot to talk about.

"Anyways, Andrew, it was nice meeting you. I'll be sure to show up to the next gig Radioactive Spiders lands."

"And I'll come to your next recital." Andrew waved to me as we finished up our long conversation and began to go our separate ways.

I started walking a few feet away until I remembered about Amanda. I turned to find that she was still talking to Jaime. I made my hands into fists and put them on my hips as I shook my head, smirking. "Come on Amanda!"

The chocolate skinned girl caught my gaze and blushed. She wrapped up talking to Jaime and then ran back over to me. I gave her a look.

"W-What?!" She panicked as a blush spread across her face.

"Nothing." I physically shook it off by shaking my head. "Hey, let's go check out over there."

•°•Patricia's Perspective•°•

"So, moron." I said as I paced along with my hands on my hips. "Are you going to be ready to go into the school soon?"

"I already told you," Powell began. "We can't go in until all the guests have arrived. if we engage the plan too early, the sight of the infected may scare the other guests away."

I rolled my eyes at him. "You idiot, people are going to get scared away by the infected no matter what. The other attendees will get scared away.. If they aren't infected first." I added.

Powell sighed and lowered his gaze from the school, looking at me instead. "I suppose you're right. Maybe we should start now."

"Finally!" I threw my hands up into the air. "That's what I've been saying this entire time."

"Yeah, yeah. And I heard you each time." He complained as he started gathering the stuff up. "Now, let's go over the plan one more time-"

I pushed him down. "Shut up, moron. I see two chaperones now. Don't take the time to explain what I already know or they'll be back inside by the time you're done."

He grumbled from where he was on the ground. "Was that necessary?"

"Yes, now shut up and grab your fairy staff." I told him as I picked up my basket of arrows.

"It isn't a fairy staff! It's a staff with an orb on the top containing Pempti fluid!"

I didn't care. I literally did not care about what Powell had to say. We haven't even been partners for three days and I already hate him. This is going to be difficult.

"Hey, I have a plan." He said to me. "Since there's bushes on each side of the doors where the chaperones are at, let's sneak around the sides and each grab one, pulling them into the bushes so we can jump them."

Well, I guess I cared about that.

"Yeah, okay." I shrugged.

"Alright, meet you on the other side." Powell lowered his voice to a whisper and started crawling along the ground.

I watched for a moment before getting down on my hands and knees and crawled as well, which was difficult to do with my basket. When I finally did make it around the school to my post, I looked out from under the bushes to see the bushes on the other side rustling. Powell must have arrived. However, neither of the chaperones seemed to notice.

I drew one of my arrows from my basket and without a second thought, plunged it into the calve of the woman near me.

She screamed and pulled her knee up to her chest. "Aaaugh! What is this?!"

"Are you alright?!" The man next to her panicked, reaching for her when Powell jumped out of the bush and shoved the orb into the man's mouth, breaking it and causing the fluid to gush into his mouth. Powell shoved him into the bush after that.

"Harold!" The woman I stabbed yelled and reached out to him just before I grabbed her and pulled her into my side of the hedges.

I pulled my yellow dress off and shoved it into my picnic basket. I looked at the now unconscious woman for a second and pulled her maroon shirt off, putting that on my person. Her turquoise leggings followed. But I kept my shoes because she had huge feet and her shoes didn't fit me. Powell took longer to get dressed and he didn't even look all that dashing when he was done.

"Do I seriously not look any different?" He had asked as he screwed a new orb onto his staff.

When we entered the school, we were immediately overwhelmed by colorful flashing lights.

"So, how are we supposed to decide who we infect?" Powell asked me.

"Easy," I said, and went over to a blonde girl in a red dress that was minding her own business. "Sweetie, could you come with us for a minute?" I asked her.

"Sure." The girl nodded, but was a bit suspicious as to why we would need her. She followed Powell and I out of the commons and into a dark and quiet hallway where I stabbed her with a syringe and infected her with Seigyo.

"And that's how you decide." I said to Powell.

He shook his head before crouching down to the girl. "Listen, the Seigyo is not to activate until after we crown you queen of the dance. Then, and only then, will you begin mass infection of the other dance goers. Do you understand?"

The girl nodded slowly.

"Great, now go." I pushed the girl out of the doors and sent her back out to socialize.

"Now.." Powell sighed.

"Let's roll."

•°•Amanda's Perspective•°•

"So, Amanda." Lilac asked me once we were standing directly under the disco ball. "Why is it that you chose to wear that dress?" She motioned to my white, sleeveless dress with the colorful shapes on it.

"Well, the reason why I wore this dress was because the others were too immodest for my own tastes."

"Oh.. Your mom?" Lilac awkwardly put a hand behind her head.

"..Yeah."

"Euugh.. Sorry I asked."

"Oh, no!" I waved my hands. "Don't be! I'm glad someone asked about my dress.. I'm fond of it."

Before I could say anymore, I heard someone tapping into a microphone. The music stopped and everyone turned their direction to the stage where the two chaperones were, holding an envelope and waving it in the air.

"No way, already?" Lilac asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Attention everyone!" The woman waving the envelope said into the mic. "It's time to declare the queen of the dance! Drumroll, please!" I heard a few people slap their legs as she tore open the envelope. "And the queen of the dance is.. Bunnie Casebeer!"

I clapped. "Aww, I'm glad Bunnie won!"

"Yeah, I guess.." Lilac said suspiciously. "..But do you remember voting?"

I stopped.

"Well, um.. No!"

Bunnie fanned herself with her hands as she made her way up to the stage. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I can't believe I won! I'm queen!" She got inbetween the two chaperones, who placed a red, rhinestone studded tiara on her head.

Then everything changed. Bunnie's eyes changed, it looked like she was in a trance. Everything went eerily quiet. The chaperones stayed perfectly still for a moment before placing a syringe filled with fluid in each of Bunnie's hands. The male chaperone held a bucket in his arms while the woman spoke into the microphone again.

"Students of Angeles Bay Middle School, this is your last night alive. Akumu will destroy you all! Delphi will reign! No one's getting out alive!"

The man flung the contents of the bucket as students scattered to avoid it. Syringes rained and landed on the floors.

"Now go, Bunnie!" The woman pointed out into the crowd. "Go and infect every single last student here with Seigyo!"

Bunnie immediately sprung off the stage, and ran at the students, stabbing them in the stomach with the syringe. She didn't even inject them with all of the fluid before moving onto the next kid. Everyone screamed and ran left and right, trying to avoid what was going on. Those who were injected by Bunnie collapsed, but would rise against a few minutes later and would go for some of the syringes that had been scattered. They, too, looked like they were in a trance and began infecting other students.

"Oh crap, this is bad! This is really, really bad!" Lilac grabbed my arm and began running with me to the exit. We had already caught the attention of some of the infected. "Call your sister and tell her to stay away from the school no matter what!"

As we pushed through the doors, I pulled out my phone. "O-On it! Just keep an eye on the infected!"

"I won't have to-" Lilac began. "They're close enough! Hurry!" Lilac put on a burst of speed. I struggled to catch up with her as we ran away from the campus of the school as fast as we could with the infected hot on our trail. We eventually found ourselves running in the middle of the empty road, headed for Caduceus.


	19. Decisions

I laid on my bed, looking up at nothing in particular on the ceiling. I was lost in thought about my reign. Any minute now, Toxica would knock on the door and beckon me to Karl's dwelling. I could do virtually anything I wanted. You don't need the Inner Circle's approval on most things. I could exile Karl if I wanted to. I could declare that I'll remain the permanent leader of Delphi, if I wanted to. I could command them to capture my daughter, if I wanted to. I could initiate a plan to resurrect the dead.

If.. I.. Wanted to.

I finally heard the knocking on the door and stood up. I made long strides over to the door and opened it, where I was faced with Toxica.

"..I suppose you know why I'm here?" She asked.

"Yeah.. Let's get this over with." I said, stepping out next to her and closing the door behind myself.

It was mostly dim and dark inside of the base save for all of the vanilla candles that were lit and lighting up the reddish gold halls.

"If you can't see very well, then allow me to guide you." Toxica offered, gently linking her arm with mine.

"I'm fine, thanks." I said, unlinking my arm and dropping my keys in the process. I bent down to pick them up. I started at the orange haired doll on the chain as I rose.

"..Do you miss him?: Toxica asked after a moment.

Without answering, I proceeded down the hall.

"My I ask you a question?" Toxica asked as she came up beside me once more.

"Whatever, but it doesn't mean I'll answer." I told her.

"Why is one of your keychains of a Tetarti?" She asked.

"Obviously because it was my favorite strain of GUILT." I told her. "I don't know if that has anything to do with why we were assigned to each other. To be honest, I don't know why we're partners at all. Partnering you with a human means that Simon is without a partner."

"I don't know the reason either," Toxica began. "But I'm glad that we're partners. As I've said before, I will always be loyal to you. So I will keep an eye on Karl for you."

"..Thanks." I said as we ascended up the carpeted stairs.

I swung the door open wide enough for Toxica to be able to catch it behind me, and entered to where the Inner Circle, Karl, the GUILTY PARTY excluding Patricia and Powell, and a majority of the other agents of my ranking were. I looked to Karl's hands, where he had a uniform of some sort. It didn't look anything like a Delphi uniform, more like something an evil overlord or the king of the underworld would wear.

"Don't tell me that this is for me." I said, crossing my arms.

"But of course it is!" He responded, pretending to sound offended. "You'll wear it, won't you?"

"I'll think about it. I'm certainly not changing right here. Let's just get this over with.:" I said, walking forward with Toxica by my side. When I was beside Karl, he began.

"Comrades and fellow Delphi members, it has been decided that for the next twenty-four hours, senior agent Castalia Preston will be taking over my role as the head of our humble organization. This will be a chance for her to test her leadership skills. During this time she must arrange for at least one outbreak to occur. You all must follow her lead as you would mine. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Prince Raitenau." Everyone responded eerily in unison.

"Excellent. I hereby pass my power over to Castalia. Anything you'd like to say?" He asked me.

"No." I responded at once. "Other than that we're minimizing activity for the evening. There's no reason to still be up at this hour, and I'm going to bed.." As I walked away, I heard Toxica following after me. I waited until we were down the stairs and out of ear shot before saying "Follow and watch Karl from a distance this evening. Make sure he doesn't crawl into my bed." I sneered. "Report back in the morning."

"Yes, ma'am." She said, stopping abruptly. I felt her white eyes burning into my back as I walked away.

•°•Angie's Perspective•°•

"Man, things sure are slow right now.." Tyler said in a glum mood as he flopped down into a chair.

"Yeah, you're right.." Leslie sighed, sitting on the armrest.

"It's not like either of you to be gloomy," I said. "Why don't either of you try to cheer up a bit?" I smiled a little.

"Mm, it's a bit hard for me to do that right now," Tyler began. "..Amy and I gotta move out, find a new place."

"What? Why?" I asked.

"..Our place has got termites." Tyler finished.

"What?" Leslie asked, apparently unaware of Tyler's dilemma until now.

"Yeah, termites.. It's gonna be a month 'till we get our place back.."

"That's awful..!" Leslie said sympathetically.

"..I'm going to turn the TV on." I said, reaching for the remote.

"Ohh, turn on the food network!" Leslie begged.

I smiled. "I was just thinking about that." I said as I pointed the remote to the mounted screen and pressed the power button.

Tyler laughed. "You girls and your.. Food channels.."

"Wait, what was that?" Leslie asked as I flicked through the channels.

"Yeah.. Go back." Tyler said, suddenly serious.

"Alright.." I said flipping back three channels until the news came up.

"The incident is thought to have occurred at Angeles Bay Middle School where the end-of-the-year dance was going on. Witnesses said that two shady figures hypnotized an attendee and commanded her to attack the other dance-goers with syringes, who converted to her side as well." A news reporter said. "People have been collapsing everywhere."

"What?!" Derek shouted from the doorway.

"Could it be Delphi?!" I asked in a panic.

"The girls..!" Leslie cried out.

"You're right, they're at the dance, too!" Tyler pointed out. "But we have to worry about everyone at that dance."

"No, the girls are here!" Leslie said, running over to one of the side doors where Amanda and Lilac were pounding on the glass in desperation. She opened the door, and the girls tumbled into the room.

"Lilac, Amanda!" I gasped.

"It was awful!" Amanda wailed. "Delphi members disguised as chaperones..! They infected poor Bunnie with Akumu!"

"What?!" Derek shouted. "What strain was it?" He came further into the room, standing next to me.

"It was Seigyo they said.." Lilac panted, out of breath.

"Why were you two running so hard?" Tyler asked.

"Because.. They chased us here." Lilac breathed.

"Man, this is bad.." Tyler grumbled. "How are we supposed to treat patients if they're headed here?!"

"More like how are you going to treat them at all?" Lilac countered. "You'll have to tranquilize them! They're set to infect others without hesitation! It's like a zombie apocalypse out there!"

"..I think I know who can help." Everyone turned to see Hera standing in the doorway.

"Hera!" Amanda and Lilac ran over to greet their friend.

"Really? You have an idea?" I asked.

She nodded. "..Shortstop and Little Monster's recoveries are going well, right? They're good with guns.. They can defend Caduceus with tranquilizers!"

Leslie, Tyler, Derek and I looked at each other, unsure.

"Markus Van Wieren and Jacques Swanson..? I don't know if-"

"It.. Might be one of our only chances." I said sadly. "..We can't risk sparing too many doctors.. We need all the help we can get."

"Angie.." Derek said as he looked at me.

"I promise.. I'll take good care of them!" Amanda promised.

"..We have to trust them." Tyler said. "They're our only hope."

"..Alright." Derek said, finally giving in.

I then turned to the trio. "Go wake the boys up, we'll get Dr. Kasal's consent."

Lilac nodded and smirked. "You got it!" She then turned to her friends. "I call waking up the Idiot Grill!"

"Oh, no! I better come with you!" Amanda said, putting her hands on her hips. "That leaves Hera with Shortstop. Think you can handle it?"

"I think so." She smiled, and then the girls ran off.

Time for us to get to work.

•°•Hera's Perspective•°•

It seemed like almost instantly I arrived at the door way to Shortstop's hospital room. I took a deep breath for a second before entering. I noticed that he had been resting in a sitting-up position when I walked in. As I got close enough and my foot steps loud enough, his sapphire eyes flew open and locked a glare onto me. I should have known from that look that things weren't going to go as planned.

I smiled and got right up next to his bedside, my hands folded infront of me. "You seem to be doing well."

"You still had the nerve to come by even after what you did to me.." His tone was cold and accusing.

I gasped and took a step back.

"So you're finally feeling guilty, huh?" He leaned forward.

"What? No..! I was here just the other day!" I said in surprise, and then sadness. "We had a great conversation.. We shared a lot with each other."

"If that happened, then I would have remembered." He retorted, his tone not any warmer. His eyes accused me of lying.

What does he mean he doesn't remember? ...Oh! "You were woozy when you woke up from surgery and we talked." I told him. "That's probably why you don't remember talking about your mom's death."

Shortstop's sapphire eyes widened in surprise, and then narrowed a bit in anger as he clenched his teeth and reached out at me with both hands, grasping me by the shoulders. No, not grasped. More like clawed. His fingernails hurt. He was definitely digging into me. But that wasn't it. He swifty yanked me forward like a rag doll, like I weighed nothing. Next thing I know, I was limp and ontop of him in the hospital bed. He pulled me forward slowly until our faces were just barely touching.

"What do you mean you know about her? What do you know?" Although he whispered, his words were harsh. He spoke through clenched teeth. It sounded like he was holding everything back not to rip me apart right then and there. His voice sent chills down my spine and put the fear of God into me. I was too scared to look into his eyes, and thought I was going to burst into tears right then and there, as ridiculous as it sounds.

I closed my eyes tightly. "Please don't do this.." I begged, my voice shaky. I could feel myself trembling, too.

"Answer and look at me." He demanded.

I looked down and opened my eyes. I could already feel tears forming. "You told me that you got Crohn's from your mom, Aimee. You described her as being really beautiful. She was a construction worker and used to have a silver hard hat. You said that when she was our age, she owned a lot of guns just like you do. You told me that when you were seven, she was having an especially bad flare-up but refused to go to the hospital for treatment, and that the complications eventually killed her in the night. And.. That you were the one that found her."

I felt his fingernails dig deeper into my flesh. Instinctively, I reached up and took one of his hands into my own.

"..And in exchange I told you what I recently learned about my past.. That I killed my own father." I rubbed the back of his hand with my thumb. "All because of a pathogen in my chest, right here." I took his hand that I was holding and placed it over the right side of my chest. "Oh, I almost forgot!" I reached into my apron pocket and pulled out a small picture of a woman with sapphire blue eyes and curly black hair- Aimee. I took Shortstop's hand and put the picture in his hand, then closed his fingers around. "You gave this to me yesterday."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him raise his hand to his face to look at the picture. "This.. Really happened?" His voice shook. "We really conversed about this?"

"Well.. Yeah!" I answered.

It happened so fast. I thought he was about to hit me, or do something else terrible to me. He grabbed my shoulders again, and swiftly pulled me in… To his chest. It wasn't until he started to tremble a bit that I realized what was happening. "Shh, it's alright. I'm here for you." I wrapped my arms around him and rubbed circles on his back. "I'm not going anywhere." I stayed there in his arms as he held onto me and cried quietly. Honestly, he's one of the last people I would expect to see crying. But then again, we all cry. Some of us because we've been strong for too long.

When he finally began to calm down, I said. "You know, if you ever need to talk to someone, you can talk to me."

"We'll see about that." He said, back to his normal self as he loosened his grip on me. I pulled back and smiled, looking at him. He was back to his usual scowl, even though his eyes were red right now. "Now, why were you here again?" He asked.

I gasped. "Oh no, I completely forgot! There's no time to explain, but there's a break out right now and I need you to use a tranq gun on the infected."

"Get me some clothes and I'll consider."

•°•Lilac's Perspective•°•

"Wake up, moron!" I hollered when Amanda and I reached Little Monster's hospital room.

He yelped and got into a sitting up position, looking around until his eyes fell on us. "What's going on?"

Amanda quickly rushed over to his bedside. "There's an emergency and we need your help. Think you have as good as aim with a tranquilizer gun?!"

"Yeah, I think that's something that I could probably manage."

"Good. Your clothes are in the nightstand drawer. Meet us in the lobby in five." I told him, grabbing Amanda and running back out of the room.

"Good, there you girls are!" Angie said, catching us in the hallway with Dr. Kasal.

"I'm giving you permission to protect Caduceus," He began. "I hope you know what that means."

"Of course," I began. "You won't be disappointed."

"Excellent," He said, handing two tranq guns to us. "Be careful with these. We have to go now."

"Take care!" Amanda called after them as they ran off.

"Come on, we don't have time to waste!" I said, turning to Amanda before running off in the direction of the lobby.

"Right!" She nodded, running after me.

"You made it," Little Monster greeted us when we arrived, fully dressed.

"Of course we did, Idiot Grill." I shoved one of the tranqs at him.

He held it up and examined it. "Shouldn't be too hard to operate."

I heard footsteps and turned in the direction of Hera and Shortstop.

"Here..!" Amanda ran over to the blonde and handed him the tranq gun that she was holding.

"Will someone explain what's going on?" Shortstop requested.

"We were at the dance at the school when the chaperones declared the queen of the dance," I began. "I thought it was pretty weird that Amanda and I didn't even remember voting. That's because we didn't. The chaperones weren't even chaperones. I think they were Delphi members. They crowned Bunnie Casebeer queen and the second they put the tiara on her head, she freaked out. The "chaperones" flung a bunch of syringes everywhere and she started injecting people left and right, who then began doing the same thing to other people."

"But what does that mean?" Little Monster asked, holding his tranquilizer tightly.

"..It means that they're infecting them with Seigyo!" Amanda answered.

"It's a strain of Akumu, a disease." Hera finished. "Not only will they be under the control of someone else, but they're in danger, also. They need to be operated on, but they have to be tranquilized before hand. "..However, most of the doctors had to leave to treat the infected.. Leaving us to defend Caduceus from the infected that come here."

"Don't you think they would have left at least a few doctors here?" Little Monster asked.

"...I would hope so." Amanda said. "Maybe we'll find out later. "We need to scan the premises!"

"She's right. Let's go." Shortstop said as he and Little Monster started down the first corridor. Amanda and Hera followed after while I took up the back.

"..I hear something." Amanda whispered after a little while.

"Yeah, I do, too." Hera confirmed. "Let's take the next right."

Shortstop and Little Monster held the tranquilizers pointed up as the carefully made the corner.

"My god.."

I shoved past Amand and Hera. "What? What is it?" I froze when I saw a group of infected middle schoolers clawing at one of the side doors.

Amanda gasped as her hands flew to her mouth. "Noo!"

"We can't just leave them there!" Hera shouted. "We have to tranq them before they find a way in!"

"If you want to be the one to open the door, then be my guest." Shortstop told her.

Hera nodded, and went over to the door. She unlocked it and then kicked it opened, quickly running back behind me as Shortstop and Little Monster pointed the tranquilizer guns at the five students that tried to climb into the doorway, and fired. One, two, three were down. Four, five.

"Lock the door, Hera!" Little Monster called to her.

Hera went over to the doorway and winced apologetically as she shoved her school mates out of the doorway and back outside with her foot. She pulled the door closed and locked it securely.

"..That takes care of one sector." Hera sighed.

"We should probably check the South Entrance next." I suggested.

"Just lead the way." Little Monster adjusted the tranq in his hands.

"Close your trap, Idiot Grill." I said as I took the lead.

"Lilac..!" Amanda called after me, but I ignored her.

I brushed up against some of the fake plants. "Look, there it is. Right across from us. There's a whole bunch out there. Maybe ten. Think you two can handle it?"

"If we couldn't, then we wouldn't be here." Shortstop scoffed.

"Fine, I'll open it then." I said before running over and jumping up, kicking the door open. The thing wasn't even locked. I ran back as the boys rushed forward, tranq'ing right off the bat. I laughed as a brunette victim face planted on the floor after being shot.

"Behind you!"

Shortstop whirled around and tranq'd another kid. I laughed. Aww man, this was too good!

Little Monster sighed after they had gotten them all, and Amanda ran over to lock the door.

"It isn't funny, Lilac." Hera scolded me, when it usually would have been Amanda doing that.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I said, running ahead.

"Lilac, wait!" Hera called after.

I didn't listen. I just kept running so I could find the next area with infected kids. But I wasn't even listening out for them clawing at the doors. That's how I didn't notice when I ran into a bunch of them. I screamed as I was grabbed and pulled face to face with a blonde boy. He was clearly in a trance. His eyes were all messed up and swirly. "You'll become like us. Prince Raitenau demands it."

And then he collapsed.

"W-What the hell?!" I cried out.

"Get down!" Little Monster shouted as he and Shortstop caught up, shooting at the surrounding infected.

"Lilac!" Amanda cried out and ran to me, her hand extended. I reached out for my friend's hand, ready to grab her when we were cruelly ripped apart by an infected that grabbed her.

"AMANDA!" I screamed.

In an instant, I was grabbed, too. I saw Hera panicking, debating who to run to first.

And then it happened.

I heard the tranquilizer fire and Amanda scream. My vision got really white and I was on the ground, my head hurt. When I opened my eyes I realized that I was unscatched. The last two victims were tranquilized..

But they had gotten to Amanda.

"They got me!" She screamed. 'THEY GOT ME!" She held her arm where blood trickled down from a messy injection. "I'm going to become like them and hurt people!"

I immediately stood up, furious. "You idiot!" I screamed at Little Monster. "Why didn't you save her first?!"

"It wasn't his fault..!" Hera insisted. "He had to save one of you!"

I stepped forward. "And now Amanda's in trouble! What if she dies before the doctors get back?!"

Amanda wailed.

Hera's expression became determined. "Then.. I have no choice."

I stepped back in surprise. "What.. How do you expect to do that?!"

"It isn't worth it!" Shortstop insisted.

"But.. It saved my life." Little Monster said to his friend.

"No one can change my mind because I've already made up. I'm going to save Amanda! I have to try to get back to that place.. That Dream Realm." Hera said, one arm bent up in a fist and the other held down diagonally, also in a fist.

"I'm not going to stay for this." Shortstop said, turning to leave.

"You do that, I'm going to watch." Little Monster said as he sat down.

"Dammit, what the hell do I do?!" I cried out in frustration.

"I'll come back for you," Hera told me. "Besides, I'm going to need an assistant of some kind." She then turned to the brunette. "Little Monster, tranq her."

Before she could protest, Amanda was hit with one of the darts. I watched as she became drowsy before finally falling over.

I watched as Hera went over to our mutual friend, leaning on her. My eyes widened as I watched Hera's eyes snap shut. It was like someone else was in control. She precisely drew two bluish green stars in the air and slid them together.

I heard a door fly open. "Girls?! We're-" I whirled around in surprise to see Dr. Stiles, who had run in the doorway mid-draw of the stars. He bit his lip. "Nggh.. So it's true!"

Angie gasped from behind him. "Impossible! There's two stars being drawn at once!"

"That's it.. It's The Healing Touch."


	20. Save Your Friends

•°•Derek's perspective•°•

"That was definitely the Healing Touch! I know it! It's just.. Nngh.. Different."

"Doctor?" Angie faced me with concern. "What does this mean? I don't know what to do!"

"I was afraid that this day would come.." A familiar voice came.

"Director Hoffman.." I turned to find the older man's eyes clouded with concern.

"I never thought that someone as young as her would be able to harness its power.." He thought out loud.

"Do you.. Do you know what's going on here?!" Angie cried out in disbelief.

Director Hoffman hesitated before saying "If everyone other than Dr. Stiles could please leave.."

"I'm sorry, but I'm staying!" Angie decided firmly.

"Angie.." But before I could even try to change her mind, Lilac chimed in.

"Yeah, me too! I need answers."

I watched as everyone else who hadn't stood up for himself left before turning back to the director. "Please.. If you have answers.."

"Indeed, I do." The director began hesitantly. "What you are witnessing is the "Second Mode" of the Healing Touch."

"What?!" I cried out.

"But.. That's impossible!" Angie gasped.

"There's more to the Healing Touch.. And yet it has such a lame name?!"

"Shh," Angie said as she regained some of her composure and gently cuffed Lilac on the head before bringing her forward to where she and I were so that the three of us could hear the news together.

Director Hoffman took a moment before continuing. "It's power is other-worldly. Quite literally, infact. Throughout its use, the user is brought to the same realm that any normal person can wander in their sleep. It's called the Dream Realm."

"There's… There's really a place we go when we dream!" Angie cried out in disbelief.

"Precisely." Director Hoffman confirmed. "And it's in this realm that they can treat patients that they have brought with them. That's from drawing two stars instead of one. One star will have the face of the user, and the other the face of the person whom they desire to bring with them. The user will close their eyes after sliding these two stars together and awaken in the Dream Realm with the patient. It's most effective if the patient in unconscious during the crossover. In this realm, the sky's the limit. You have your operating room, your tools.. Everything that you can imagine. However, support is limited since bringing multiple people in the Dream Realm saps quite a lot of energy.. This is why the Second Mode of the Healing Touch can only be used once a day, and you cannot use the regular Healing Touch in the Dream Realm."

"Can you tell us about how the patients are treated..?" I questioned.

Director Hoffman frowned. "Any procedures you perform and any wounds you treat will be healed in the waking world once you have returned. Unfortunately, if the operation is a failure in the realm, it will also be in the waking world. And if your body in the waking world is moved while you are in the realm treating a patient.." His voice trailed off.

"Just.. Don't let it happen." Lilac assumed and finished.

Once the Director finished, Angie spoke up. "Does no one realize what this means?! Hera is in there, trying to treat Amanda! If she makes a mistake..!"

"We can't let this continue!" I yelled. "Someone's going to get hurt! Or worse..!"

"..There is a way." The director mumbled.

"Huh..?" I asked stupidly.

"Anyone who has the Healing Touch can use the Second Mode of the Healing Touch. If you were to draw stars with both your face and Miss Preston's face on them, you may be able to find them."

"This is something I've never done before.." I admitted. "But I'm going to have to try!"

"What?! You can't..!" Angie protested. "This is crazy! I'm.. I'm going with you!"

"Angie.." I began. "You heard what the director said. Bringing extra people is dangerous." I smiled for her sake. "I'll be fine, trust me."

The blonde maiden held her hands to her chest in worry. "You better be, Derek Stiles.."

"Come back with my friends alive!" Lilac called after as I approached the two unconscious girls that had a bluish green glow to them.

"Goodluck…" The director mumbled.

I nodded with determination, kneeling down on the ground to steady myself as I got ready to begin my work. "Alright.. Concentrate." I told myself. "I can do this.. Lives depend on it!"

My fingers whizzed in the air and precisely drew congruent stars with both my and Hera's faces present on them. Some outside force demanded that my eyes closed, and I swear I felt a bright light I slide the two stars together.

It felt like almost an entire minute later until I opened my eyes. I was surrounded by black, darkness. "Hello, is anybody there?!" I called, but got no answered. I walked forward until color started to come into view. I ran forward, and an image began to materialize. It was a lighted operating room, and inside there was a single surgeon and a patient lying on the operating table.

I broke into a sprint.

"Hey, hold it! Hera!" I panted as I slowed down.

She whipped her head towards me in surprise, her braids bobbing. "Dr. Stiles?!" She had already begun the operation. "You're not sterile!" She snapped, turning her attention back to the operating field.

"Come on, this is dangerous! A secondary infection is the least of our problems right now!" I snapped back.

"I was doing perfectly fine on my own..!" She stubbornly insisted. I gazed into the operating field, watching as she was excising around a cluster of red pathogens. I gazed up at the monitors to see that Amanda's vitals were in the low fifties.

"Dammit!" I bit my lip. She wasn't going to let me take over unless I was sterile. I ran out of the operating room and quickly going to work scrubbing up, watching through the window constantly in case Amanda's condition changed at any point.

As soon as I had finished scrubbing up, I burst back through the operating doors. "Alright, Hera! Play time's over! You have to let me take over now!"

Hera gazed up at me, her eyes showing a look of helplessness that her chance at being able to save her friend was about to be taken away from her. "But.. Aiie!" She cried out as mass hemorrhaging occured and Amanda's vitals dropped to their thirties. "..I already figured out how it works!"

I clenched my teeth. "You can help… You can help by telling me how to treat her."

Reluctantly, she handed the scalpel over to me and stepped aside.

I took a look at what we were up against. They were several red, X shaped pathogens clustered together like Triti.

"You… Have to excise them quickly, or else-"

Hera and I watched helplessly at the pathogens tore themselves from the surface of the organ and practically ran with root-like legs, reattaching themselves elsewhere.

"I've got it!" Hera said as she began to pump Amanda with stabilizer.

"Thanks.." I breathed, and began to excise the pathogens piece by piece, placing them on the tray when I was done.

It wasn't long after that another cluster appeared.

"Alright.. Let's do this again." I said, draining blood pools that appeared while excising the membranes.

"We weren't fast enough!" Hera cried out as the remaining membranes uprooted, injecting more stabilizer.

"Hera, if I give you the drain, will you be able to drain the blood that appears?!"

"The blood..? Yes!" She said, taking the drain from me and getting to work at once so that I could focus on the membranes.

With precision, I removed the membranes and disposed of them into the tray.

"There's.. There's no more appearing. We're done! Amanda, you're going to be okay!" Hera wailed in relief.

"We did it.. We actually did it." I grinned under my mask as I started closing her up.

I finished up and turned to Hera, who was smiling at me. "We can go now." She said, lifting her hands with a fan of bluish green stars in her hands. One for Amanda, herself, and I. She set each one on its tip, watching it spin. I closed my eyes.

It felt like another minute before I awoke. Hera was awake, but leaning against the wall in exhaustion. Amanda was still unconscious.

"Dr. Stiles!" Angie ran over to me and got on her knees.

"It was a success… She'll be fine." I said, taking Angie's hands and helping the both of us up. "We'll need to take her to recovery, and get Leslie in here. Hera needs her." I said, looking to the exhausted girl as she suddenly slipped out of consciousness.

Angie gasped. "Yes, at once!" She ran off.

What are we going to do with her?


	21. QUALITY TIME: Caverns

•°•Shortstop's Perspective•°•

"I need you boys to do me a favor," Nurse Sears said as she opened a box of evergreen colored jars, taking one in each hand. "Take Lilac and Hera and show them a good time." She turned to Little Monster and I, smiling. "They need to live the lives of normal girls, and that means getting away from Caduceus for a bit. Can you do that for me?" She asked as she began to place the jars on the shelves.

"Sure thing," Little Monster answered. "We can do that."

"Thank you," She said, and reached into the pocket of her shiny pink uniform. She pulled out a folded piece of paper and held it out to us. "Here's my phone number and the Fyals' phone number. Call us if you need anything."

Little Monster took the piece of paper and put it in his back pocket.

"And here are these back." She reached behind a box on a shelf and grabbed our guns, holding them out to us. "I got them back from security."

I retrieved Bloody Murder and put it into my holster. "Thank you," I said, turning to walk away.

"There's one other thing, boys." The nurse said. "..My daughter supposedly falls in love very easily. I'll warn you now."

Little Monster blinked, then smiled at the nurse reassuringly. "Sure thing, Nurse Sears. See you later." He turned and walked out of the storage room, heading down the hall.

"I'll catch up with you." I called after him, then turned my attention back to the green haired woman. "Nurse Sears.."

"Yes, what is it?" She didn't look at me, as she was too occupied with her work of stocking the shelf.

"I promise you that I'll protect Hera, always. No matter what." I narrowed my eyes. "You have my word."

The nurse froze mid-stretch and turned to me, two more evergreen jars in hand. "What's that?" She smiled.

"Your daughter chose my life over her own freedom, and what's more, she was kind towards me when I barely treated her like a human being. Someone likes her needs and deserves my help."

The nurse chuckled. "Very well then, but that's a big commitment." She turned back to her work.

_"I know that, and I can accept it."_ I thought to myself as I left the storage room and headed out to the lobby where Little Monster and the girls were waiting.

"Ah, there he is." Little Monster grinned and stood up. "What took you so long?"

"I was just talking to Nurse Sears about something is all." I moved forward. "Let's go."

The blonde one, Lilac, got up and stretched in her denim shorts and lavender tank top. "About damn time. Where are we going?"

"It's a secret." I turned to the maiden in a denim skirt and t-shirt. "Are you ready to go?"

Hera nodded. "I'm ready."

Little Monster took the lead, yelping as Lilac kicked him to get him going.

Hera fell in next to me. "What were you talking to Leslie about?"

"You." I told her.

"Me?" She asked in surprise. "What about me?"

I stopped walking, and Hera did the same. "I promised your mother that I'm going to protect you. Always." My eyes burned with how serious I was.

Hera's face reddened as she gazed at me. "You said that?"

I noticed her blush and quickly took action, keeping what Nurse Sears said in mind. "Don't start that."

her blush faded as she looked at me with confusion.

"Hey, come help me with this." Little Monster called to me from a few yards away.

"We sure got out of the city fast." Lilac said, putting her hands behind her head and looking around the field that we were in.

I got on my hands and knees next to my male companion and parted the tall grass to reveal a wooden trap door. I unlatched it and held the door open for him as he climbed down a rope ladder into the dark abyss.

"What is this?!" Hera ran over and Lilac leaned over the hole. "I've never seen this before!"

"It's a cave." I told them. "Not many people know about it, so you'll have to keep it a secret."

"Yeah, sure." Lilac said as she stepped into the hole and started down the ladder.

Hera went down next and I went last, pulling the door closed and cutting off the light source.

"Well what the hell do we do now?" Lilac asked in the dark.

Little monster turned on the flashlight that he had brought with him and pointed it at two tunnels. "We explore."

"Dude, we're taking the one of the left." Lilac said, heading for it."

"But I wanna go in the one on the right!" Hera protested.

"We'll split up." I said as I touched the ground and turned on my flashlight. "Hera and I will go right and you two can go left."

"Aww dammit, I get stuck with the Idiot Grill." The blonde girl headed down the tunnel, my brunette friend following after.

"Let's go, Hera." I said, heading down the right tunnel.

"Uh huh!" She nodded, bouncing after me.

"Woah.." She gazed up at the ceiling of the cave."It's so pretty in here! How did you two find this place?"

"Does it matter?" I asked, walking ahead with the flashlight to light our path.

"I guess not.." She said, catching up with me again. "So why do you want me to be your responsibility all of a sudden?" She asked, skipping next to me.

"You chose my life over your freedom. What other reason do I need?" She gave me a look and I sighed irritably. "You know, most people wouldn't be kind to someone who treated them like something lower than dirt. But you even worried about me."

Hera smiled softly. "I cooked for you, too."

I gave her a look. "And if you're so compassionate that you'd continue to hang around me knowing that I could kill you any moment, then I should do something with that compassion you've shown me and protect you."

"It's more than just me you'll have to protect." Hera said softly as she stopped.

"If you're talking about Amanda and Lilac, then you're wrong. I realize that they are your best friends, but you and you alone saved me."

"That isn't what I meant." Hera smiled, taking a step closer to me. "Remember at Birchwood when you almost blew my lung out?"

"Yes, I do." I raised an eyebrow, curious as to where she was going with this.

"I said that I have a Lung Bat, and that if anything happens to her, I die. That's true." She gently grabbed my hand and placed it over the right side of her chest. "..Right here." She told me.

My hand moved with the rise and fall of her chest. Everything seemed normal until a moment later, when I felt a fluttering under my hand.

I yanked my hand back. "You shouldn't bring a man's hands that close to your breasts."

Hera blushed and let out a gasp, pulling her hands to her chest instinctively. "Don't be like that! You know that isn't what I meant!"

"I know," I said, putting my hands in my back pockets. "You're way too innocent to do that intentionally, and I have no interest in taking advantage of that." I narrowed my eyes. "But some men would, so be careful."

She blinked and covered the right side of her chest with both hands. "I will, I promise. If you're going to go out of your way to protect me, then I need to be careful, too."

"..Thank you." I told her.

•°•Christine's Perspective•°•

"Princess," I heard a masculine voice call from the doorway of my office, and I glanced up from my stack of documents, though his voice was enough to give him away.

"What is it, Pinchas?" I asked the blue braided teenager.

"It's a letter from Delphi." He said, holding up a manilla envelope with a wax seal.

I scowled at the thought of my brother. "Dispose of it," And looked back down at my documents.

"Ma'am,"

I glanced up without lifting my head this time. "Must I repeat myself?"

"This letter is from Castalia Preston."

I hesitated before slowly lifting my head up. "Bring it here."

Silently, Pinchas brought the letter over and held it out to me. It took it from him, picking up my letter opener a moment later. With a quick motion, I sliced open the envelope and removed the letter, unfolded it, and read it, all while Pinchas watched silently.

"She's called for an audience with me." I summarized to the other teenager.

"Will you accept?" He asked.

I folded my hands together. "Yes.. Yes I will. See to it that a letter of acceptance is sent to one Castalia Preston."

"Yes, ma'am." He bowed before turning and heading out.

"You're an exceptional lackey, Pinchas Paraskevi." I muttered under my breath as he left. "The best of them all."

•°•Madevery's Perspective•°•

"My, my. If it isn't the dear son of Heinrich." I smiled at the hairless boy as he approached me. "Taking an afternoon nap, are we?"

"You know it, my dear!" He smiled. "I have lots of free time today now that Castalia's taken over."

I nodded. "Yes I heard about that."

"Oh, it is true that you took Hera and that ever-so-great nephew of your's to Birchwood?" He smiled, cocking his head to the side.

"Why yes, yes it is." I raised a saucer with a teacup on it in my hand. "But how did you find out about that?"

"Oh, one of your little birdies told me." He hummed.

"I see." I sipped hot apple cider from the cup. "I assumed that he was talking about one of my child maids."

"Now, you are of course welcome to the blonde boy, but keep in mind that my family saw Hera first. I get priority over her."

I sat my cup back down on the saucer. "That's a shame. I've taken a liking to her." I told him.

"Well, that could certainly be a problem. But maybe we could work out some kind of agreement?"

"Oh, an agreement?" I sipped from the cup again.

"Yes, an agreement. You know how interested I am in the creation of these animal-like pathogens. The ones that take over souls, yes?"

"Yes, I am familiar with it. Why do you bring it up?"

He smiled wickedly "You and I both take pleasure in other people's misery. Then what better way to benefit us both then you infecting people with my creations as a form of torment?"

"And do you have more of these things yet?" I asked as I set the saucer and the cup on the end table next to me.

"Well, no," He began. "But I-"

I cut him off. "You are going to need these things before there is any such talk of this. Are we clear?"

Karl bit his lip.

"Oh, is there something wrong?" I smiled.

"Well, no!" He protested, averting his eyes. "Nothing at all. You'll have your pathogens, Madevery." He turned and began to walk. "I best be on my way."

"Bye, bye now." I waved, then hummed to myself and I used my fist to prop up my chin. "Don't forget, now."

As he left, I picked up the snow globe that had been beside me and gazed into it, watching as a blonde girl and a brunette boy paraded through the caverns. "..I do believe that things are going to get very interesting soon."

•°•Toxica's Perspective•°•

"How is he?" Castalia asked I strode up to her.

"..Prince Raitenau was taking a nap the last time that I checked." I reported.

"..Good." The woman clad in black averted her eyes.

Both of us turned our heads as a blur of white entered the room.

"Sorry, I'm late," The snowy haired male apologized, looking around despite the fact that he was wearing a blindfold. "Serena and I were-" He stopped, and I believe that he was looking at Castalia in her get-up. "..Well then." He lowered his arms, and spun around to leave. "I didn't realize that Castalia was in charge today. I'll just be leaving-"

"No, no, no!" Castalia stood and shouted, "You aren't going anywhere! Jerome!"

Jerome stopped and smiled at her from over his shoulder. "I suppose that I could stay.. For a price."

Castalia groaned lightly. "You want me to take you to McDonald's, don't you?"

"You know me so well, Cassie." Jerome teased.

Castalia clenched her teeth at the sound of the nickname. It's likely that she's more than just irritated by it. I assume that "Cassie" has some meaning to her.

"That's enough." Castalia snapped. "Be on your way, Jerome."

Jerome shrugged his shoulders and walked off, seemingly content.

When he was gone, I turned to Castalia. "..What does the name "Cassie" mean to you?"

"That's something you don't need to know." Her golden eyes blazed as she glared at me. "Only one person may ever refer to me by that name, and he no longer walks this Earth." That was all that Castalia needed to say for me to realize that she was talking about Dr. Adrastos. Abioud was the one who called her Cassie, and it was he who she possessed a keychain of.

"Yes, Castalia." I nodded. "I understand."

Castalia averted her eyes "Patrol for a bit. I wish to be alone." Though she tried to keep her tough composure, she almost sounded sad.

"Yes, Castalia." I answered before turning and leaving her.

Not long after, I sensed another GUILT strain nearby. It was Savato.

"Simon?" I called out to him.

"Yeah, I'm here." The blue and purple haired male stood up, holding Victim 02 in his arms. She was asleep and rested her head against his chest. It was almost cute that a human girl was finding enough comfort in a pathogen that she could sleep on him.

"What are you doing with Victim 02?" I asked him. "We weren't scheduled to do anything with her yet."

"No, but let's be honest." He said as he set her down. "Castalia's smarter than to plan an outbreak so soon after the last one. She isn't going to do it. And because she won't, Karl's going to bust a damn nut." He began to remove a grate from the wall. "Soo.. I'm going to set this up so that it looks like Castalia planned it. That way, Karl won't get his knickers in a giant twist." He grinned as he laid the girl on the other side of the grate. It reminded me of caverns of some sort. After placing the grate back on, he pushed a slab of the sorts ontop of the grate and began to fix that in place with the tools he had brought.

"Releasing her into the caverns? That's suspicious." I told him, narrowing my white eyes.

"Yeah, but you don't even know fully what I have planned." He said as he ran a hand through his locks. "You just wait and see."

•°•Hera's Perspective•°•

"This tunnel is awfully long." I whispered as we trudged along in the dimly lit cave.

"If you want to turn around, just say so." Shortstop said dryly.

"No, it's not that." I said, my arms behind my back as I walked a foot or two behind him. "But.. How much longer will it be?"

"I can't say," He answered. "Each time I've come here I've taken a different route."

"Oh." I suddenly came to a stop, and he did the same.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I.. I think I hear bats."

"Bats?" He asked. "That can't be. There's no such thing here."

"Listen," I whispered and put my finger to his mouth, silencing him. He stared at me for a long while before he heard something almost equal to what he had felt under his hand on my chest earlier.

But in a few minutes I would realize that my Lung Bat and these bats were nothing close to equal.

Because they were unadulterated.

"I wonder why we didn't notice them earlier." I said outloud, the shrieking and fluttering of the bats growing louder and louder. It also began to pound in our ears.

"The reason why they didn't make an appearance earlier.." Shortstop narrowed his eyes. "..Is because they didn't know we were here until now."

The bats hit us almost instantly after Shortstop grabbed me and forcefully pulled me into a protective embrace. I gasped. His sudden gesture literally took my breath away with how forceful he was.

I wailed as they nipped and clawed at me, shrieking in my ear. They were drawn to me. No, they weren't drawn to me. They were drawn to Alison, and I was just her vessel. One or two tried to wriggle inbetween our torsos to get to my chest, but Shortstop just swatted them away. He pulled our bodies closer together and buried my face into his chest as I began to cry on him.

The only thing that I could hear other than the bats was the beating of Shortstop's heart, and I decided to focus on that.

_Ba-Bump, Ba-Bump._

I felt him shift.

_Ba-Bump, Ba-Bump._

There was a clicking sound.

_Ba-Bump._

Then, there was a gunshot.

I seized up. The bats drew away from me, and their cries became more and more distant.

I looked up at the male that I clung to as warm blood rolled down my leg. In his hand was a black gun, the one that he had called Bloody Murder. He raised the barrel to his lips and gently blew the fumes away before returning the gun to its holster.

I smiled softly. "My hero."

•°• Little Monster's Perspective •°•

"DAMN! Did you hear that?" Lilac stopped and turned her head.

I stopped as well, my hands in my pockets since she was the one carrying the flashlight now. "Yeah," I confirmed. "It was a gunshot, no doubt about it. And by the sound of it, it was Bloody Murder."

Lilac crossed her arms with the flashlight in hand. "Uh, English?" She demanded. Why did she detest me so?

"Bloody Murder is Jack's, or Shortstop's, gun. If he fired it, then he and Hera must be in trouble."

Lilac clenched her teeth and made her hands into fists. "Dammit..! We have to get to them!" She whirled around and sprinted back the way we had come.

"Hey, wait!" I extended my hand out towards her, but to no avail. "Dammit.." I took off after her. Just moments later, I ran into her and nearly fell on the ground. "Hey, why did you stop? ..Lilac?"

"This kid..:" She whispered.

"What kid?" I peered around from behind her, and my eyes widened.

From her black socks to the neckline of her bell bottomed dress, I knew it was her.

"EMILY!" I cried out and ran over to my little sister who was curled up at Lilac's feet on the cavern floor. "Emily, when did you get here? _How_ did you get here?"

My sister slowly raised her head to look at me, her ebony pigtails with the white streaks bobbing. Her light blue, icy eyes glimmered with tears as she looked at me, her mouth slightly agap. "Mark!" She cried out before throwing herself at me and burying her face into my chest. Though I wasn't very much surprised by her actions. Emily had always been very emotional and a big crier. As her caring and princely older brother, I was the pillow that she cried upon.

I smiled a bit, and then lifted Emily up bridal style while rising myself. "I think we ought to go. Is that alright with you, Lilac?"

The blonde turned away from me and crossed her arms. He response was a groan, though she was smiling. "Yeah, let's go find the dweebs while we're at it." She pointed the flash light upahead once more, and took the lead with Emily and I right behind her.

Shortstop and Hera exited their tunnel about the same time that our party did. I smiled to myself when I saw Shortstop carrying Hera bridal style like I was Emily, and then frowned when I saw the condition that Hera was in. "What happened?" I asked.

"We'll talk later." He said, then glanced down at Emily. "In the mean time, I think it's best that we all head back to my house for a bit. It's closest, and there's enough space for all of us there. Besides.. I think that we all have some stories to share."


	22. Decode

**((For my readers. Shortstop's house is mostly based by and inspired by my aunt's house. Yes, she really does have a pool house, a yard, a pool, a tennis court, and several levels to her house. However, there's no spyre or fun colors on the outside. There is, however, another house in town that is slate blue with cream, and several other houses that have spyres. I always pictured Shortstop living in a pretty house, so here you have it. ;) )) **

•°•Hera's Perspective•°•

It wasn't long after we got out of the caverns that we set off to Shortstop's house. And when we got there..

"NO WAY, THIS HOUSE IS YOUR HOUSE?!" Lilac cried out as she pointed at the enchanting piece of art. It was slate blue with cream accents, and even had a spyre on the side. "I've been wondering what lucky bastard lived here for years!"

I couldn't help but clasp my hands together and wiggle. "It's beautiful! Absolutely enchanting!" I'm sounding and acting a whole lot like Amanda now. "You really live here?!"

"Yes, I do." He said dryly as he went up onto the porch and opened the door.

Little Monster winked. "There's more. There's a pool house, a tennis court, a pool, and a couple levels!"

I cried out whereas Lilac nearly fell over.

"Well, come on. Don't just stand there." Shortstop called from the doorway. Little Monster and Emily had already gone inside.

"Alright." I smiled and ran up to the porch, scrambling up with Lilac in tow. Shortstop waited until we were inside and then closed the door behind himself.

Shortstop entered the kitchen where Little Monster had already set Emily ontop of the counter. "Get up there. It'll be easier to tend to your wounds that way."

I blushed and held my hands together, down by my thighs. "I.. I can tend to myself!"

Shortstop narrowed his eyes. "No.. It was my fault that this happened to you. I am responsible for you and therefore I will be tending to your wounds."

"..Besides." Lilac snickered. "You didn't protest in the lab the other day when Victor was tending to you." She gave me a provoking look as she continued to jeer. "Remember? You were getting all lovey-dovey with him."

"S-Shut up!" My face reddened as I scrambled up and onto the counter next to Emily.

While Shortstop cleaned the dry blood from my leg with a moist towelette, I glanced over to where Little Monster was tending to to Emily and the wounds she must have gotten in the cave. Emily had bunched her dress up and held it up so that her big brother could tend to the wounds on her tummy. He narrowed his eyes and ran his fingers over a surgery scar with fresh sutures. Emily whined and wiggled back on the counter, away from her brother's digits.

He quickly apologized, and then asked "What is this? Emily?" But all the tween did was look down and frown. She refused to answer any further questions.

"Damn, damn, damn!" Lilac cried out, her hands and face glued to the window that overlooked the back yard. "You have a pool, too?! I'm swimming!"

"But.. You don't have a bathing suit!" I reminded her.

"Tch. Screw that." She grabbed a hold of her tanktop. "I'll just swim in my bra and underwear!"

"That won't be necessary."

"Hm?" Lilac smiled and turned to Shortstop. "What, you don't want to see me half naked?"

"No, not really." He responded dryly. "Besides, we have a whole bunch of my mother's clothes from when she was younger. There's more than enough suits for each of you."

"Hey, that's great." Little Monster turned to his sister. "Emily, do you want to swim?"

She nodded quietly, and he lifted her off of the counter. "Then go off with Jack and the girls. They'll take you to find a pretty bathing suit."

"Just a reminder." I said as Lilac and Shortstop headed up the stairs to the second floor. "Anyone with stitches will need to tape saran wrap over their scar before getting into the water."

"Alright, thanks. I think I'll do that now." Little Monster said and went to the other side of the kitchen, opening a drawer.

Content with his answer, I headed up the stairs after Emily.

"Here we are." Shortstop said as he swung open the door to a wardrobe to reveal a set of dazzling outfits, ranging from costumes to bathing suits.

My eyes widened. "Wow.. These are amazing!"

"There should be one in each of your sizes." He told us as he returned to the doorway. "Come back down when you're already." He turned the knob and closed the door behind himself as he headed up to the third floor.

"Alright, alright, alriiight!" Lilac cheered as she pulled out a pink two-piece bathing suit out of the wardrobe. It was a bikini bottom and a top with a low back that tied around the neck. She ran off to the corner to change.

"Are there any black bathing suits in here?" Emily asked as she dug.

"I don't think so." I told her as I aided her in her search. I then reached in and pulled out a light blue one-piece bathing suit with a tutu on it. "Here you go! This one should fit you!"

Emily frowned at the bright color and turned away. "Oh.. Okay." She took the bathing suit and went in the bathroom to change.

I turned to the wardrobe and pulled out a bikini the same blue as Shortstop's eyes. I stared at it for a moment before changing into it.

I was the last one to the kitchen. Even Little Monster had gone upstairs and changed into blue and white trunks with a bermuda-like pattern.

"There's towels in the pool house." Shortstop said to me as he was holding the door open for the others, who walked around the house to the back where the pool was.

"Alright." I nodded and started past him when he said the following.

"..You chose that bathing suit."

I stopped and turned to him nervously. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"No, not at all." He answered, focusing on the faux diamond directly over my sternum, "It's just that I remember that one the most. My father got it for my mother and she wore it often."

I blushed a bit when I realized that I was wearing a grown woman's bathing suit. "But that can't be! Lilac's bigger than me and she found a bathing suit that must have been from your mother's teenage years!"

He shook his head. "I don't know how it fits you, but it does. Elastic, maybe. Anyways, head down to the pool. Bugs will get in if I stand here holding the door for much longer."

I nodded and obeyed him, running around the house to the back driveway. I jumped onto the stepping stones along the lawn until I reached the gate where the pool area was. It took a moment until I figured out how to unhinge the gate, leaving it open for Shortstop because he'd be reopening the gate by the time that I would have closed it.

I made it just in time to see Little Monster waist deep in the water while Emily jumped into his arms. Lilac, in the mean time, dipped a toe into the pool and then recoiled. "Damn, Shortstop! If you're loaded, then why don't you heat your pool?"

He narrowed his eyes at her as he closed the short, wooden gate to the pool area. "We're no where near "loaded". We inherited this house from my grandfather."

"Your grandfather had a weird taste in houses. Colorwise, I mean." Lilac responded and then dove into the deep end of the pool head first.

Shortstop rolled his eyes and took his shirt off, leaving himself in a pair of black swim trunks.

Lilac resurfaced and looked from Little Monster to Shortstop. "..Surprising that the Idiot Grill is the one with the abs."

It was true; Little Monster had abs whereas Shortstop did not. He's capable of having them, I'm sure, but at this point in time he was rather thin.

"I lose weight due to Crohn's." He explained.

It was suddenly that a tall, raven haired teenager came out of the pool house, wrapping his arms around Shortstop's waist and rest his hands tenderly on his belly. "..And if he didn't, he'd be a chubby bunny." He patted the blonde on the stomach.

Shortstop wriggled out of his grasp. "Get away from me."

The raven ignored him, pinching his cheeks. "Aww, does wittle brudder have girlies over?" He released Shortstop and made his way over to Lilac, crouching down at the pool's edge.

"Reggie, don't." Shortstop growled.

"Hey, baby." Reggie winked a light blue eye at Lilac. "I'm the Burger King. Wanna grab a bite?"

"..Oh what the fuck." Lilac said dryly, then struck a pose. "..I know you want this body, but you can't have it! You can't have it!" She then reached around and slapped him.

Reggie rubbed his reddened cheek before making his way over to me. "Did you fall from heaven? Because you're pretty bruised."

I quickly glanced down at my body. I hadn't even realized that my bruises were visible in this bathing suit. "I-I.."

Reggie grinned. "Oh, I recognize those bruises.." He looked over his shoulder. "Oh, Jacques.." He purred lovingly. "Do you know anything about these?"

"Nothing." Shortstop growled, clearly trying to hold back his anger.

"You're lying!" Reggie lifted his own shirt to reveal a bruise on one of his abs. "Her bruises are just like the one you gave me."

"Jack?" Little Monster asked with worry, Emily buried in his chest.

"Leave!" Shortstop snapped at his brother. "I'll deal with you later."

Reggie shrugged his shoulders and headed towards the house.

"None of this ever happened," Shortstop snapped at us. "Understand?" Emily shook as she buried her face deeper into Little Monster's chest.

"..Whatever." Lilac was the first to break the silence, diving back under the water and swimming to the shallow water where she grabbed Little Monster's ankle.

"Hey!" he yelped as he lost his balance and fell under the water with Emily in his arms.

I jumped into the deep end and resurfaced around the same time that Lilac did.

"Hey, I haven't seen you close up in that bathing suit until now." She smirked. "You don't fill the bust out at all.

It was true. Lilac's B cups filled out her bathing suit's bust much better than my A cups did in this bikini, which was meant for a full grown woman with B or C cups.

"T-That's not true!" I spun around in the water, and, while swimming with my feet, tried to push my breasts up.

"Hey, I see what you're doing!" The monstress roared playfully, reaching for me.

"No!" I squealed, and climbed out of the pool before she could get me. I started running around the edge of the pool.

"Hera, don't-" I heard Shortstop warn me from where he was waiting on the side of the pool next to the pool house. But I didn't listen.

..I didn't listen.

The pain came quickly and overwhelmingly. Everyone stopped when I slipped and my hip made a sickening sound when it hit the concrete of the pool area.

I bit my lip as I teared up. I didn't want to cry here. I really didn't.

"Dammit, Hera. Why didn't you listen?" Shortstop knelt beside me with a towel, wrapping me with it. "Hera?" He lifted my head up.

His eyes widened when he saw that I was tearing up, and realized that he wouldn't be able to stop me from crying before it happened.

"What's wrong?" Lilac asked, suddenly serious.

"..It's nothing." Shortstop said quickly. Keep swimming. I'll take care of it." He lifted me up bridal style, heading up to the house.

We were right up by the house when the crying started.

"Come on, Hera." Shortstop bounced me a bit in his arms. "Don't do this." I could tell that he wasn't used to doing this. Infact, considering how cold he is, he probably just walks away when someone starts crying, or turns the other way. But I think the reason why he tried to comfort me is because I am his responsibility.

He entered the house through the back door (Which was what lead into the "basement", and that was actually more like a second living room in the house, or the zeroth floor) He then carried me upstairs to the first floor and set me on the counter like he did earlier today. I was crying pretty hard at this point.

He pulled the side of my bathing suit aside to look at my hip, which was red and very likely to bruise.

"Oh, damn." He whispered and got an ice pack out of the freezer, pressing it against my skin.

By now, I had began to calm down, and the blonde sighed in relief.

"I'm sorry." I began shakily, wiping my eyes. "..I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry about it." He said as he looked me up and down. "Just.. Stop crying."

It was then that Reggie chose to make a re-entrance. "Aww, Jacques. What did you do to make her cry now?" He then eyed the ice pack that Shortstop was pressing against my hip, and made himself look sad when he turned back to his brother. "You need to be nicer to girls, Jacques. If you keep hurting them, then none will ever like you."

Shortstop at once released the icepack and stepped towards his brother, baring his teeth. "I didn't do that to her!"

"Yeah, right." Reggie laughed, and turned to walk away when the younger brother reached up and pulled the older down to his face by the shirt.

"I swear to god I didn't do this to her and if you say another word then so help me-"He whispered harshly.

Reggie suddenly became serious, narrowing his eyes as he smacked his younger brother off of himself. "You better knock this crap off or I'm telling dad. And you know that he won't put up with it!" The raven adjusted his shirt and retreated to the second floor.

I had stopped crying at this point, and was now staring at the blonde while I pondered as to why he had suddenly grown so aggressive over something so petty.

And then it hit me.

Well, actually, it hit him.

A hunger pang, and a big one. The blonde turned away out of embarrassment as his stomach howled. "..Sorry." He apologized.

I jumped off of the counter and took a step towards him, ignoring the pain in my hip. "So it's true! You do get more aggressive when you're hungry!"

"What are you talking about?" He furrowed his brow, gazing down at me as his stomach grumbled again.

"Just now, with Reggie!" I told him. "That was aggressive, even for you! And at Birchwood, too! You were especially aggressive until I fed you!" I poked his stomach repeatedly. "It's an adorable quirk!"

"Hera, stop it." He demanded, but I didn't stop. "Hera." He raised his voice.

Finally, his hunger got the best of him and he slammed me up against the counter, bending me backwards over it with my hands pinned above my head. "..I told you to stop."

My eyes widened, and then I started giggling under him. "Adorable! Get off of me so I can feed you already!"

"I'm not some animal at the zoo," He reminded me. "I can feed myself."

"Oh yeah?" Then why did you make me make you a sandwich at Birchwood?" I asked him.

"Does that matter right now?" He ran his hand through his blonde locks.

"I guess not." I said as I grabbed the icepack and pressed it to my hip again. "Fine, eat what you want. I'll be in the living room."

"Alright." I heard him say as I entered the next room and threw my towel on the couch, laying down.

I must have dozed off for a long time because when I woke up, Emily, Little Monster, and Lilac were in the house and dressed. So was Shortstop, but I had a feeling that something wasn't right.

I sat up at once. "What's wrong?"

Lilac sat on the edge of a chair that Shortstop was curled up in. "..He's having a flare-up. I tried to help him, but let's be honest. I'm only one person and we're an incomplete trauma trio."

I frowned. "_It's true.. Comfort and soothing is much more suited to Amanda.. I hope she's alright." _

"Then.. We'll just have to help him ourselves.." I got up, wincing at the pain in my hip.

"Oh yeah, how is that?" Lilac asked.

"Better than before.." I mumbled and went over to the chair as Lilac got off of it. "Shortstop, we need to get you over to the couch."

The blonde groaned as he rose, and made his way over to the couch. Being the candy stripers that we are, Lilac and I adjusted his pillow and covered him with a nearby quilt.

"Is there anything I can do?" Little Monster asked with Emily grasping his arm.

"Can you cook?" I asked, turning to face him.

"Yes, I can." He nodded. "Do you want me to?"

"Yes please." I glanced back at Shortstop, who had already gotten comfortable and closed his eyes. "If there's any kale, please make use of it."

"You got it. Come on, Emily." I heard him walk off to the kitchen.

"So what do we _do_?" Lilac asked, eyeing me.

"Make him as comfortable as possible, I guess.." I responded. "Where's the medicine cabinet? Do you have any pepto bismol?" I asked the blonde.

"It won't help." He lashed. I jumped back a bit, even though his back was to us. "This isn't your everyday upset stomach."

I looked down. "..I know."

It was then that the door was opened, and a man a bit older than Dr. Kasal came in wearing a leather jacket. He definitely had the traits of both the boys that lived here. Light blue eyes, and wavy blonde hair. He looked a lot like Shortstop despite the fact that this man had a goatee.

"..Mr. Swanson?" I guessed.

"Hey there, girlie." He closed the door and took his leather jacket off. "Sorry about the mess, I didn't know we would be having guests over."

"..But there is no mess." Lilac whispered to me.

"I know, I know!" I waved my hands as I whispered back to her, and then turned back to Shortstop's father. "I'm Hera and this is Lilac. We're Jacques' friends!"

After hanging his coat up, Mr. Swanson made his way over and held a hand out to each of us. "Call me Luther."

Lilac smirked and shook at once. "You got it, Luther."

Luther peered around us at his son, who was dozing lightly. "Is the boy having a flare-up?"

"Mmhm." I nodded. "We're trying to take care of him, though."

"That's good." He said, reaching over to his son and lifting the silver construction worker's hat off of his head. He held it in his hands fondly. "..I wouldn't want him to end up like her."

My eyes widened a bit. "Was that.."

"You know then?" Luther asked in surprise. "Markus didn't know for the longest time."

"I-" I began.

"..Have no idea what's going on." Lilac finished.

"Maybe we should change the subject then," Luther began. "Where's Reginald?"

"REGINALD!" Lilac howled. "That's priceless!"

"Ah… Is Reginald.. Reggie?" I asked, my hand behind my head as I tried not to laugh. "Because if so.. he's upstairs."

"Yes, that's him." Luther grinned. "Thank you girls. Will you be spending the night?"

I blinked. I hadn't thought of that before. "Um, maybe. I'll have to text Leslie first." I leaned over and glanced at Lilac's phone as she scrolled through her contacts to ask for the same thing. I sweatdropped when I saw that she had her fathers saved under "Dad 1" and "Dad 2".

Hera Preston says: **LESLIE, CAN I SLEEPOVER AT SHORTSTOP'S HOUSE? **(Just now)

"My dad says I can stay." Lilac told Luther as she put her phone away.

"Alright, great." He said as started heading up stairs. "You can stay in the guest room."

"Aww yes." Lilac fist pumped as Emily carried a cookie tray with crispy, salted kale out and set it on the coffee table.

"Markus and I made kale chips." She told us.

"Hey, that's great!" I said, then moved around the coffee table and gently shook the sleeping blonde. "Shortstop, wake up! We have something healthy for you to eat!"

The blonde groaned as he sat up, then glanced down at the cookie sheet before glancing at me. "..Why kale?" He asked. "It's not very filling."

I smiled softly at him. "No, but it's good for elimination of excrement, digestion, and fights against inflammation. Therefore, it is a perfect counter against your AutoImmune Disease. Now eat up."

The blonde hesitated before doing so, and I pulled out my sidekick as it vibrated.

Leslie Sears says:**YES, AND I HAVE A SURPRISE FOR YOU WHEN YOU COME HOME.(: **(Just now)

I smiled down at the screen. I think that once we put all of this Akumu stuff behind us, everything will turn out to be okay.

•°•Leslie's Perspective•°•

I smiled at my screen before putting it away. I couldn't wait to tell Hera.

"Leslie," Tyler said, looking down at his pager.

"Yes, what is it?" I smiled.

"It's Dr. Kasal. He's calling us for a small meeting."

"I wonder what it could be for.." I said as I glanced over at Amanda, who was still sleeping after her operation.

"..I think you and I both know." He whispered.

"I just hope all of this ends soon.." I told him.

"Yeah, me too. We better get going."

"Yeah, you're right." I said as I followed him to the conference room.

"Tyler, Leslie. You're both here." Dr. Kasal said as we both entered and sat down. Derek, Angie, and Victor were already present.

"What's this about?" Derek asked.

Dr. Kasal picked up a small stack of paper and moved to read off of the first one. "Kyoki- Insanity. Those who have had it in them all along are the most vulnerable."

Everyone's eyes widened, including my own, as Dr. Kasal continued to read. "Seigyo- Control. Grabbing the reins of those who have strayed from the path of God."

"Hato- Heartbreak. Bottling pain will be mankind's downfall."

"Akumu Core- Nightmare. Sinful mother to three, godmother to seven. As long as she lives, her children thrive."

"It's true then." Angie put her hand to her mouth, close to tears. "There's no doubt about it. Delphi is back for a third time."

"How long do we have to fight until they're gone for good?!" Tyler cried out.

"Shut up!" Victor snapped at him. "We can make use of this information to learn more about we're dealing with. If it weren't so cryptic, at least."

"Maybe I can help." I smiled. "I majored in English for awhile."

"What use will English skills be in deciphering the work of psychotic terrorists?"

"Do your best, Leslie." Dr. Kasal said as he passed the papers across the table to me.

"Let's see." I shuffled through the papers to get back to the front page. "Well, Kyoki is fairly easy to interpret. Those who have insanity within them are more prone to coming down with this strain."

"Good job, Leslie!" Angie congratulated me genuinely.

I flipped to the next page. "Seigyo. It's called control, and the girls said that those who were infected with it seemed to be in some kind of trance and not thinking for themselves. Therefore, "Grabbing the reins of those who have strayed from the path of God" could mean converting people to Delphi's beliefs and ideals."

"Interesting.." Dr. Kasal commented.

I moved onto the next page. " 'Hato- Heartbreak. Bottling pain with be mankind's downfall.' I think what they mean is that the stronger the heartache is in the infected, the more powerful the result. That boy Markus who had Hato seemed rather heartbroken."

"I'm starting to see a pattern here.." Victor commented.

"And finally.. The core, which means Nightmare." I smiled. "Well, this one isn't very hard at all! The 'three' that is refers to are the strains of Akumu, and the 'seven' are the seven strains of GUILT that the core is able to produce despite them being of a different disease. And as long as the core lives, Akumu will thrive."

"You cracked the code.." Victor said. "If only it were good news.."

I frowned when I realize what he meant. "..Because as long as Hera is alive, Akumu will exist and harm people."

Derek suddenly slammed his hands on the table and stood up. "And we're just going to accept that?!"

Irritated, Victor copied him. "THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO! If we toy with the core TOO much, we could kill her, too!"

"Every disease has a cure! You should know that!" Derek snapped at him.

Victor clenched his teeth. "You're still an idiot, aren't you? They designed it this way JUST so we would have this dilemma. Why can't you understand that it's either no Akumu or her life? We can't have both."

"So you're just going to give up finding a cure?! What kind of a doctor are you?! Infact, who are you?! This isn't the Victor I know!"

And with that, Victor slammed his fist on the table one last time, his bangs covering his eyes. He slowly stood up, muttered "I'm taking the rest of the day off." And then vacated the room.

Dr. Kasal stopped Derek before he could say anymore. "That's quite enough Derek."

"Seriously, that was uncalled for." Tyler commented.

Derek looked down in shame as he realized what he had just said to Victor. "I..I need to apologize to him."

"No," Angie grabbed his shoulder. "Leave him be for now."

•°• Victor's Perspective•°•

I parked my car upfront and entered the local bar, ignoring the looks that I was given as I sat on a bar stool upfront.

"One regular." I said to the bartender, and then glanced at the television in the bar.

"..And with new cases arising, the public fears that GUILT has returned yet again."

I ran my fingers through my hair and tried to block the sound out.

"It's pretty early for you to be here, isn't it?" A nearby feminine voice asked.

I turned to my left to see Linda Reid seated next to me in a long black dress and a black rosary entwined with her fingers and palm.

"Aren't you a little too young to be in a bar?" I responded.

"I turned twenty-one three months ago. Don't you remember?" She asked.

"_Right. I forgot." _"Then why are you here?" I asked her.

"I was walking down the street and just so happen to glance in. I saw the uniform and the hair and knew it had to be you, so I stopped in."

"Hmmph." I picked up my beer when the bartender slid it over and took a sip.

"Come on, don't be that way, Victor." She smiled that small smile of hers. She then glanced up at the television and watched for a moment. "..Oh. Is that what's bothering you?"

"That and a bit more." I responded.

Linda lowered her voice and leaned in close to me. "Is it really GUILT?" She asked me.

"No, it's not." I responded quietly, but not nearly as softly as her. "It's a different disease called Akumu, but it's engineered by the same people. But this time we might not be able to eradicate it because…" My voice trailed off. "Nevermind. Forget it." I sipped my beer again.

"Aww, tell me!" Linda pried, going as far to pull the mug away from my lips. "You know I love to hear about your work."

It's true, she did. Whenever we did something after I got off my shift, she'd always ask for the details.

I groaned and gave in. "Fine. We have this.. Girl. She's a candy striper. She has a bat in her lung, and it just so happens to be the thing keeping this new disease alive. But.. It's also keeping her alive."

"That.." Linda's eyes widened. "Is _so _cool. You have the best job, Vic."

"It wasn't so great today." I mumbled.

"Oh yeah? Why not?" Linda rested her upper body on the bar counter as she gazed at me, her rosary spread out on the counter along with her dark blue locks.

"I got in a fight with Derek right before I left."

"Well, I hope things between you two get better."

I hesitated for a moment before I said. "..You know, if you're so interested in my work, then maybe I can arrange to bring you in with me sometime."

Linda's eyes lit up, a rarity for her. "Really, you'd do that?!"

"Think of it as a late birthday gift from me."

She threw her arms around me. "You're the best, Vic!"

I paid for my beer, not ordering another. "Do you need a ride home?" I asked her.

"That'd be nice." She said, standing up with me.

We headed to door and she left first. I took one last look at the television screen before leaving.

This better be over damn soon.


End file.
